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Orthologs & Synteny

Orthologs can sometimes be identified using synteny. For example, below we have 2 related species with 2 chromosomes each.

In deciding which gene a in species 1 might be the ortholog of gene a in species 2, the additional synteny of genes c and d give supporting evidence that gene a on chromosome 1 is the orthologous gene. The two copies of a in species 1 are paralogs, possibly caused by a duplication event in species 1.