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Unusual linkage patterns of ligands and their cognate receptors indicate a novel reason for non-random gene order in the human genome

BACKGROUND: Prior to the sequencing of the human genome it was typically assumed that, tandem duplication aside, gene order is for the most part random. Numerous observers, however, highlighted instances in which a ligand was linked to one of its cognate receptors, with some authors suggesting that...

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Autores principales: Hurst, Laurence D, Lercher, Martin J
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2005
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1309615/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16277660
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-5-62
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author Hurst, Laurence D
Lercher, Martin J
author_facet Hurst, Laurence D
Lercher, Martin J
author_sort Hurst, Laurence D
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Prior to the sequencing of the human genome it was typically assumed that, tandem duplication aside, gene order is for the most part random. Numerous observers, however, highlighted instances in which a ligand was linked to one of its cognate receptors, with some authors suggesting that this may be a general and/or functionally important pattern, possibly associated with recombination modification between epistatically interacting loci. Here we ask whether ligands are more closely linked to their receptors than expected by chance. RESULTS: We find no evidence that ligands are linked to their receptors more closely than expected by chance. However, in the human genome there are approximately twice as many co-occurrences of ligand and receptor on the same human chromosome as expected by chance. Although a weak effect, the latter might be consistent with a past history of block duplication. Successful duplication of some ligands, we hypothesise, is more likely if the cognate receptor is duplicated at the same time, so ensuring appropriate titres of the two products. CONCLUSION: While there is an excess of ligands and their receptors on the same human chromosome, this cannot be accounted for by classical models of non-random gene order, as the linkage of ligands/receptors is no closer than expected by chance. Alternative hypotheses for non-random gene order are hence worth considering.
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spelling pubmed-13096152005-12-09 Unusual linkage patterns of ligands and their cognate receptors indicate a novel reason for non-random gene order in the human genome Hurst, Laurence D Lercher, Martin J BMC Evol Biol Research Article BACKGROUND: Prior to the sequencing of the human genome it was typically assumed that, tandem duplication aside, gene order is for the most part random. Numerous observers, however, highlighted instances in which a ligand was linked to one of its cognate receptors, with some authors suggesting that this may be a general and/or functionally important pattern, possibly associated with recombination modification between epistatically interacting loci. Here we ask whether ligands are more closely linked to their receptors than expected by chance. RESULTS: We find no evidence that ligands are linked to their receptors more closely than expected by chance. However, in the human genome there are approximately twice as many co-occurrences of ligand and receptor on the same human chromosome as expected by chance. Although a weak effect, the latter might be consistent with a past history of block duplication. Successful duplication of some ligands, we hypothesise, is more likely if the cognate receptor is duplicated at the same time, so ensuring appropriate titres of the two products. CONCLUSION: While there is an excess of ligands and their receptors on the same human chromosome, this cannot be accounted for by classical models of non-random gene order, as the linkage of ligands/receptors is no closer than expected by chance. Alternative hypotheses for non-random gene order are hence worth considering. BioMed Central 2005-11-08 /pmc/articles/PMC1309615/ /pubmed/16277660 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-5-62 Text en Copyright © 2005 Hurst and Lercher; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Hurst, Laurence D
Lercher, Martin J
Unusual linkage patterns of ligands and their cognate receptors indicate a novel reason for non-random gene order in the human genome
title Unusual linkage patterns of ligands and their cognate receptors indicate a novel reason for non-random gene order in the human genome
title_full Unusual linkage patterns of ligands and their cognate receptors indicate a novel reason for non-random gene order in the human genome
title_fullStr Unusual linkage patterns of ligands and their cognate receptors indicate a novel reason for non-random gene order in the human genome
title_full_unstemmed Unusual linkage patterns of ligands and their cognate receptors indicate a novel reason for non-random gene order in the human genome
title_short Unusual linkage patterns of ligands and their cognate receptors indicate a novel reason for non-random gene order in the human genome
title_sort unusual linkage patterns of ligands and their cognate receptors indicate a novel reason for non-random gene order in the human genome
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1309615/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16277660
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-5-62
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