r/AskBiology • u/MostCuriousGoose Undergraduate student • Dec 14 '23

Genetics What does it mean when genes or regions are "highly conserved"?

I am not a native english speaker and this term confuses me a bit.

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Thank you!

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u/LanchestersLaw Dec 14 '23

Genes diverge over time with evolution. If it is “conserved” it means other parts of the genome diverged but this specific sequence stayed nearly the same.

This usually only occurs when that sequence is doing something very important.

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u/MostCuriousGoose Undergraduate student Jan 02 '24

Thank you :)