Divergent and convergent evolution of housekeeping genes in human-pig lineage
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Bioinformatics, Evolutionary Studies, Genetics
- Keywords
- Housekeeping genes, Basal cellular function, Convergent evolution, Gene structure
- Copyright
- © 2017 Wei et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2017. Divergent and convergent evolution of housekeeping genes in human-pig lineage. PeerJ Preprints 5:e3450v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.3450v1
Abstract
Housekeeping genes are ubiquitously expressed and maintain basic cellular function across tissue/cell types conditions. The present study aimed to develop a set of pig housekeeping genes and compare characteristics of structure, evolution and function of housekeeping genes in the human-pig lineage. Using RNA sequencing data, we identified a list of 3,136 pig housekeeping genes. Comparing to human homologous counterparts, we found pig housekeeping genes were longer and subjected to slight weaker purifying selection pressure and faster neutral evolution. Common housekeeping genes, shared by the two species, have stronger purifying selection than species-specific genes. But pig-specific and human-specific housekeeping genes have similar functions. Some species-specific housekeeping genes have evolved independently to form similar protein-active sites or structure, such as classical catalytic serine-histidine-aspartate triad and zinc finger features, implying that they have converged for maintaining the basic cellular function, which led to equivalent solutions for adapting to the environment. Human and pig housekeeping genes have varied in their structure and gene list, but they have converged on the maintenance of basic cellular functions essential for the existence of a cell, regardless of its specific role in the species. The results shed light on the evolutionary dynamics of housekeeping genes.
Author Comment
This is a submission to PeerJ for review.
Supplemental Information
List of pig housekeeping genes
The file listed pig housekeeping genes identified in the present study.