Pseudogenes Sequences of DNA that resemble actual genes but do not encode functional products.
Processed pseudogenes are DNA copies of mRNAs produced by reverse transcription. They lack introns and often contain a remnant of the poly(A) tail.
"Studying genomes through the aeons: protein families, pseudogenes and proteome evolution". J Mol Biol 318 (5): 1155-74. PMID 12083509.
^ Orengo CA, Thornton JM (2005). "Protein families and their evolution-a structural perspective". Annu.
The genome of eukaryotes is loaded with 'dead genes' called pseudogenes. Pseudogenes are copies of working genes that have been inactivated by mutation. Most pseudogenes do not produce full proteins. They may be transcribed, but not translated.
And so we sequenced a whole bunch of these pseudogenes of individual humans and great apes, and sure enough we found that the human pseudo gene had many, many more mutations.
The third-smallest human chromosome at about 50 million bp, chromosome 22 is thought to contain as many as 2000 genes and pseudogenes.
Pseudogene
An inactive gene derived from an ancestral active gene. Pseudogenes are often recognized by nonsense or frameshift mutations that disrupt an open reading frame that encodes a functional protein in a related genome.
PSEUDOGENE - Inactive but stable components of the genome which derived by duplication and mutation of an ancestral, active gene. Pseudogenes can serve as the donor sequence in gene conversion events.
Reverse transcription now appears also to be involved in movement of certain mobile genetic elements, such as the Ty plasmid in yeast, in the replication of other viruses such as hepatitis B and possibly in the generation of mammalian pseudogenes.
 See also: Pseudogene, Genome, Trans, Human, Cell
  
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