Gene cluster
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A gene cluster is a set of two or more genes that serve to encode for the same or similar products. Because populations from a common ancestor tend to possess the same varieties of gene clusters, they are useful for tracing back recent evolutionary history. Because of this, they were used by Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza to identify ethnic groups within Homo sapiens and their closeness to each other.
An example of a gene cluster is the Human β-globin gene cluster, which contains five genes for similar proteins. Hemoglobin molecules contain any two identical proteins from this gene cluster, depending on their specific role.
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