Genetic divergence

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Genetic divergence is the method of detecting and artificially directing two or more desired genetic characteristics that have occurred naturally over time and passing these divergences from one generation to subsequent generations. The genetic characters can be observable structures from different species or they can be molecular entities, such as genes or pathways. This is a kind of relationship naturally observed in evolutionary biology.

Naturally occurring genetic divergences can be seen in some higher level characters of structure and function that are readily observable in organisms. For example, the vertebrate limb is one example of naturally occurring genetic divergence. The limb in many different species has a common origin, but has diverged somewhat in overall structure and function.

Genetic divergence technology can be applied to molecular biology characteristics. This could apply to a pathway in two or more organisms or cell types, for example. This can apply to genes and proteins, such as nucleotide sequences or protein sequences that derive from two or more homologous genes. Both orthologous genes (resulting from a speciation event) and paralogous genes (resulting from gene duplication within a population) can be said to display natural divergence. Because of the latter, it is possible for genetic divergence to occur between two genes within a species.