csrB Gene Duplication Drives the Evolution of Redundant Regulatory Pathways Controlling Expression of the Major Toxic Secreted Metalloproteases in Vibrio tasmaniensis LGP32

Abstract

The conserved CsrB sRNAs are an example of sibling sRNAs, i.e., sRNAs which are present in multiple copies in genomes. This report illustrates how new copies arise through gene duplication events and highlights two evolutionary advantages of having such multiple copies: differential regulation of the multiple copies allows integration of different input signals into the regulatory network of which they are parts, and the high redundancy that they provide confers a strong robustness to the system.