Figure 2.

Example of the origin of a scrambled germ‐line locus. (A) Following the duplication of a germ‐line locus (top), functional proteins/chromosomes (three examples below) can be assembled from a myriad of combinations of the duplicate MDSs (blue and red). Arrows indicate the 5′‐3′ orientation in the germline and represent the portions of the MDSs that are assembled into the top‐most chromosome/gene. (B) Eventually some portions of MDSs decay (red, dashed box), forcing the alternative processing of the germ‐line loci to still produce functional chromosomes. (C) Eventually, the decay becomes complete, resulting in a single combination of the remaining functional MDS portions in a scrambled orientation.