Gene cluster

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 functional genes and one non-functional gene for similar proteins. Hemoglobin molecules contain any two identical proteins from this gene cluster, depending on their specific role.

As according to the recent finding seem to suggest the evolutionary pathway and the diversion in the genes.