Study finds incomplete redundancy and functional networks among 14 TLO paralogs in Candida albicans

A preprint posted to bioRxiv investigates the functional organisation of the TLO (TeLOmere-associated) gene family in Candida albicans, an opportunistic fungal pathogen. The TLO family comprises 14 paralogs — genes that are related by descent through duplication events — making it an unusual system for studying how gene families evolve and how redundancy among duplicates is maintained or lost over time.

The research group constructed a panel of single-deletion mutants, removing each of the 14 TLO members individually, and assessed the consequences for fitness and gene regulatory function. Their findings indicate that the 14 paralogs form interconnected functional networks rather than operating as simple, interchangeable copies of one another. Redundancy among them is incomplete: loss of individual members produces distinct phenotypic consequences, suggesting that repeated duplication has produced functional diversification alongside retained overlap.

The work is framed within broader questions about gene family evolution: when gene duplication does confer a selective advantage, what prevents the system from collapsing into full redundancy, and what constrains the emergence of new paralogs with entirely novel function? The preprint has not yet been peer-reviewed. The findings are relevant to researchers studying fungal genetics, gene family evolution, and the evolutionary genetics of gene duplication and subfunctionalisation.