A Signature of Evolutionary Constraint on a Subset of Ectopically Expressed Olfactory Receptor Genes
A Signature of Evolutionary Constraint on a Subset of Ectopically Expressed Olfactory Receptor Genes
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DOI：
10.1093/molbev/msn294
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发表时间：
2009-03-01
影响因子：
10.7
通讯作者：
Gilad, Yoav
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
De la Cruz, Omar;Blekhman, Ran;Gilad, Yoav
嗅觉受体（OR）基因构成嗅觉的基础。长期以来，已经观察到哺乳动物OR基因的子集除了在嗅上皮中表达之外，还在非嗅组织中表达。然而，OR基因在非嗅觉组织中是否具有替代功能尚不清楚。我们使用专用微阵列调查了人类和黑猩猩嗅上皮以及许多非嗅觉组织中的OR基因表达。我们的观察结果表明，异位表达或orthopathic基因在人类和黑猩猩的相同nonolfactory组织中表达的机会比预期的更频繁。此外，我们发现，具有保守的异位表达的orthopathic OR基因的子集在比只在嗅上皮中表达的OR基因更强的进化约束下进化。因此，虽然我们不能提供直接的功能数据，我们的观察结果是一致的概念，异位表达的OR基因的子集有额外的功能，在非嗅觉组织。
Olfactory receptor (OR) genes constitute the basis for the sense of smell. It has long been observed that a subset of mammalian OR genes are expressed in nonolfactory tissues, in addition to their expression in the olfactory epithelium. However, it is unknown whether OR genes have alternative functions in the nonolfactory tissues. Using a dedicated microarray, we surveyed OR gene expression in olfactory epithelium as well as a number of nonolfactory tissues, in human and chimpanzee. Our observations suggest that ectopically expressed OR orthologous genes are expressed in the same nonolfactory tissues in human and chimpanzee more often than expected by chance alone. Moreover, we found that the subset of orthologous OR genes with conserved ectopic expression evolve under stronger evolutionary constraint than OR genes expressed exclusively in the olfactory epithelium. Thus, although we cannot provide direct functional data, our observations are consistent with the notion that a subset of ectopically expressed OR genes have additional functions in nonolfactory tissues.