Finding conserved gene order across multiple genomes

The ever increasing amount of annotated genomic sequences permits now to shed light on the molecular dynamics at the basis of evolution. Genome evolution involves both changes at the sequence level, but also rearrangements on the gene organization along the genome. Comparative analysis of gene order in multiple genomes may be thus of help in the investigation of general or lineage-specific genome plasticity, as well as in the inference of phylogenetic relationships. In particular, conserved gene contiguity in a chromosome, even if interrupted by intervening genes, may suggest potential functional couplings. This unit explains the usage of GeneSyn, a software tool for the automatic identification of conserved gene order across multiple annotated genomes.