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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology
Rapid evolution of cancer/testis genes on the X chromosome
BMC Genomics, Volume 8, Article 129, Year 2007
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Description
Background: Cancer/testis (CT) genes are normally expressed only in germ cells, but can be activated in the cancer state. This unusual property, together with the finding that many CT proteins elicit an antigenic response in cancer patients, has established a role for this class of genes as targets in immunotherapy regimes. Many families of CT genes have been identified in the human genome, but their biological function for the most part remains unclear. While it has been shown that some CT genes are under diversifying selection, this question has not been addressed before for the class as a whole. Results: To shed more light on this interesting group of genes, we exploited the generation of a draft chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) genomic sequence to examine CT genes in an organism that is closely related to human, and generated a high-quality, manually curated set of human: Chimpanzee CT gene alignments. We find that the chimpanzee genome contains homologues to most of the human CT families, and that the genes are located on the same chromosome and at a similar copy number to those in human. Comparison of putative human: Chimpanzee orthologues indicates that CT genes located on chromosome X are diverging faster and are undergoing stronger diversifying selection than those on the autosomes or than a set of control genes on either chromosome X or autosomes. Conclusion: Given their high level of diversifying selection, we suggest that CT genes are primarily responsible for the observed rapid evolution of protein-coding genes on the X chromosome. © 2007 Stevenson et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
Available Materials
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC1890293/bin/1471-2164-8-129-S1.xls
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC1890293/bin/1471-2164-8-129-S2.xls
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC1890293/bin/1471-2164-8-129-S3.doc
Authors & Co-Authors
Stevenson, Brian J.
Switzerland, Lausanne
Sib Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics
Iseli, Christian
Switzerland, Lausanne
Sib Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics
Panji, Sumir
South Africa, Bellville
University of the Western Cape
Zahn-Zabal, Monique
Switzerland, Lausanne
Sib Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics
Hide, Winston A.
South Africa, Bellville
University of the Western Cape
Old, Lloyd John
United States, New York
Memorial Sloan-kettering Cancer Center
Simpson, Andrew John George
United States, New York
Memorial Sloan-kettering Cancer Center
Jongeneel, Cornelius Victor
Switzerland, Lausanne
Sib Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics
Statistics
Citations: 95
Authors: 8
Affiliations: 3
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1186/1471-2164-8-129
e-ISSN:
14712164
Research Areas
Cancer
Genetics And Genomics