As the basic units to carry heredity information of living organisms, the origins and functions of genes can be tracked back to the very beginning point of life on earth. So, when the genes which are 10 millions years old are still been considered young and new, you should not be surprised.

The new genes are not popped out in a random puff from nature. On the contrary, their débuts are the common events on the way of molecular evolution. Then, why and how this happens? Who pull the triggers? And what are their novel functions? As the head of the leading team in molecular evolution and genomics research, Dr. WANG Wen (Kunming Institute of Zoology, the CAS) has newly presented us a detailed review about new genes on Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics (2012，43：345-363) to try to provide the answer lists of those questions.

“Although we do not know the answers of every single important questions about new genes, at lease for now, but one thing I can say for sure is there are ways to reach them.” Dr. WANG said.

During the past ten years, Dr. WANG and his colleagues has developed a systematic approach combining experimental biology with bioinformatics to study newly evolved genes. Their research enriched the list of new genes by adding the well known ones, such as Sphnix, Monkey King, Hun, etc. And, by analyzing the genome of 12 Drosophila, Dr. WANG’s research is of inspiration to investigate the patterns of origination mechanisms and gene expressions from the whole genome level. Moreover, their research also contributed to the addressing of the long-underappreciated mechanism-- “De Novo origination”. 

“In the near future, if the current new gene origination patterns which were drawnfrom Drosophila could be applied to other species or time-scale will become a hot point. And those researches are having pivotal meaning for us to understand the development, evolution and genetics of organisms.” according to Dr. WANG.

All in all, besides of the above mentioned issues, in this review, Dr. WANG summarized the newest advances in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms and genome-wide patterns of new gene origination and new gene functions. It introduced recent findings that have opened a path to the study of the evolution of novel functions and pathways via novel genes and also discussed the important issues and potential developments in the field.

The link of the review: http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-110411-160513