A gene that seems to have escaped certain death about 2.5 million years ago has revealed a new molecular mechanism for the origin of new genes, according to a study recently published in Science by UC Davis researchers. The results surprised recent doctoral graduate Manyuan Long, who chose to study what he thought was a nonfunctioning "pseudogene" in the widely studied fly Drosophila. Instead, the gene seemed to have a useful function from its unusual beginning. Created during a process that somehow recombined pieces of two genes to create a unique and different gene, it was named "jingwei" after the heroine of the ancient Chinese legend about an Emperor's drowned daughter who was reincarnated as a beautiful bird. Contrary to prevailing theories about the delayed influence of natural selection upon newly created genes, the researchers also found strong evidence that natural selection influenced the jingwei gene's origin and early evolution. "There are two aspects to evolution that people talk about: How organisms slowly evolve and how novel biological functions arise," says UC Davis genetics professor Charles Langley, the co-author of the paper. "Here, it looks like a completely novel gene emerged -- bang! -- and then natural selection said, 'We need this; let's make more of it.'"