RGD Reference Report - The evolution of gene expression levels in mammalian organs. - Rat Genome Database

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The evolution of gene expression levels in mammalian organs.

Authors: Brawand, David  Soumillon, Magali  Necsulea, Anamaria  Julien, Philippe  Csárdi, Gábor  Harrigan, Patrick  Weier, Manuela  Liechti, Angélica  Aximu-Petri, Ayinuer  Kircher, Martin  Albert, Frank W  Zeller, Ulrich  Khaitovich, Philipp  Grützner, Frank  Bergmann, Sven  Nielsen, Rasmus  Pääbo, Svante  Kaessmann, Henrik 
Citation: Brawand D, etal., Nature. 2011 Oct 19;478(7369):343-8. doi: 10.1038/nature10532.
RGD ID: 18182917
Pubmed: PMID:22012392   (View Abstract at PubMed)
DOI: DOI:10.1038/nature10532   (Journal Full-text)

Changes in gene expression are thought to underlie many of the phenotypic differences between species. However, large-scale analyses of gene expression evolution were until recently prevented by technological limitations. Here we report the sequencing of polyadenylated RNA from six organs across ten species that represent all major mammalian lineages (placentals, marsupials and monotremes) and birds (the evolutionary outgroup), with the goal of understanding the dynamics of mammalian transcriptome evolution. We show that the rate of gene expression evolution varies among organs, lineages and chromosomes, owing to differences in selective pressures: transcriptome change was slow in nervous tissues and rapid in testes, slower in rodents than in apes and monotremes, and rapid for the X chromosome right after its formation. Although gene expression evolution in mammals was strongly shaped by purifying selection, we identify numerous potentially selectively driven expression switches, which occurred at different rates across lineages and tissues and which probably contributed to the specific organ biology of various mammals.




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