Related Experiment Videos
Widespread ectopic expression of olfactory receptor genes.
Ester Feldmesser1, Tsviya Olender, Miriam Khen
1Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel. ester.feldmesser@weizmann.ac.il
BMC Genomics
|May 24, 2006
Summary
Olfactory receptors (ORs) show widespread, heterogeneous expression across many tissues, not just the nose. While some specific OR subsets may have functions, interpreting ectopic expression requires caution.
Area of Science:
- Genomics
- Molecular Biology
- Evolutionary Biology
Background:
- Olfactory receptors (ORs) constitute the largest human gene family.
- Ectopic expression of ORs has been observed in non-olfactory tissues like sperm and testis.
- The functional implications of this ectopic expression remain largely unexplored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To systematically investigate the expression patterns of OR genes across a wide range of human and mouse tissues.
- To assess the potential functional significance of ectopic OR expression.
- To analyze the evolutionary and transcriptional control mechanisms of OR gene expression.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of expressed sequence tag (EST) and microarray data for hundreds of human and mouse OR transcripts.
- Examination of OR gene expression levels in dozens of human and mouse tissues.
- Comparison of expression patterns between human and mouse orthologous OR pairs.
Main Results:
- Widespread, locus-dependent, and heterogeneous expression patterns were observed for OR genes across tissues.
- Specific tissues exhibited distinct subsets of highly expressed OR genes.
- No significant correlation in expression levels was found between human-mouse orthologous OR pairs.
- Pseudogenized ORs showed similar expression levels to intact ORs, with an exception for subfamily 7E.
Conclusions:
- The expression of the OR superfamily aligns with a neutral or near-neutral model for transcription control evolution.
- While small OR subsets might have functional roles in specific tissues, caution is advised when interpreting ectopic expression based solely on transcription data.