Question

Nonfunctional copies of normal genes, which lack both introns and promoters, and are important in estimating evolutionary ages of phylogenetic relationships, are ________.

1) transgenes

2) retrotransposons

3) processed retrogenes

4) processed pseudogenes

5) duplicated pseudogenes

Answer 1

Processed pseudogenes are nonfunctional copies of normal genes that lack introns and promoters, and they are important in estimating evolutionary ages of phylogenetic relationships.

Step-by-step explanation:

Nonfunctional copies of normal genes, which lack both introns and promoters, and are important in estimating evolutionary ages of phylogenetic relationships, are processed pseudogenes. Pseudogenes are genes that have lost their protein-coding ability or are no longer expressed by the cell. These pseudogenes are copied from mRNA and are considered nonfunctional remnants of once-functional genes.