Linked Life Data

18562338

Source:http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/id/18562338

Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
9
pubmed:dateCreated
2008-8-15
pubmed:abstractText
Animals recognize their external world through the detection of tens of thousands of chemical odorants. Olfactory receptor (OR) genes encode proteins for detecting odorant molecules and form the largest multigene family in mammals. It is known that humans have fewer OR genes and a higher fraction of OR pseudogenes than mice or dogs. To investigate whether these features are human specific or common to all higher primates, we identified nearly complete sets of OR genes from the chimpanzee and macaque genomes and compared them with the human OR genes. In contrast to previous studies, here we show that the number of OR genes ( approximately 810) and the fraction of pseudogenes (51%) in chimpanzees are very similar to those in humans, though macaques have considerably fewer OR genes. The pseudogenization rates and the numbers of genes affected by positive selection are also similar between humans and chimpanzees. Moreover, the most recent common ancestor between humans and chimpanzees had a larger number of functional OR genes (>500) and a lower fraction of pseudogenes (41%) than its descendents, suggesting that the OR gene repertoires are in a phase of deterioration in both lineages. Interestingly, despite the close evolutionary relationship between the 2 species, approximately 25% of their functional gene repertoires are species specific due to massive gene losses. These findings suggest that the tempo of evolution of OR genes is similar between humans and chimpanzees, but the OR gene repertoires are quite different between them. This difference might be responsible for the species-specific ability of odor perception.
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:chemical
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Sep
pubmed:issn
1537-1719
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Electronic
pubmed:volume
25
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
1897-907
pubmed:dateRevised
2010-11-18
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
2008
pubmed:articleTitle
Similar numbers but different repertoires of olfactory receptor genes in humans and chimpanzees.
pubmed:affiliation
Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, USA. yasuhirogo@gmail.com
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Comparative Study, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't