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Single Cell Transcriptional Profiling of Adult Mouse Cardiomyocytes
Published on: December 28, 2011
Organismal complexity, cell differentiation and gene expression: human over mouse.
Alexander E Vinogradov1, Olga V Anatskaya
1Institute of Cytology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Tikhoretsky Avenue 4, St. Petersburg 194064, Russia. aevin@mail.cytspb.rssi.ru
Nucleic Acids Research
|September 21, 2007
Summary
Humans exhibit greater evolutionary cell specialization than mice, with more tissue-specific genes and complex gene regulation. This molecular difference underlies increased phenotypic complexity, longevity, and body size in humans.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary biology
- Genomics
- Molecular biology
Background:
- Phenotypic complexity increases with evolutionary time.
- Cellular differentiation and specialization are key drivers of organismal complexity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the molecular and cellular basis for increased phenotypic organizational complexity in humans compared to mice.
- To identify genetic and regulatory differences contributing to human evolutionary advancements.
Main Methods:
- Comparative analysis of human and mouse orthologous genes and homologous tissues.
- Gene expression profiling to quantify tissue-specific and housekeeping gene expression.
- Analysis of promoter regions and protein sequences for evolutionary divergence.
- Examination of messenger RNA (mRNA) 5' untranslated regions (5'UTRs) and upstream AUG (uAUG) codons.
Main Results:
- Humans display a higher proportion of tissue-specific genes and a greater ratio of tissue-specific to housekeeping gene expression compared to mice.
- This enhanced cellular specialization is more pronounced in human tissues associated with increased complexity, longevity, and body size.
- Genes with altered expression breadth show greater divergence in human and mouse promoter regions and proteins.
- Human mRNAs have longer 5'UTRs with more uAUG codons, indicating more complex translational regulation.
Conclusions:
- Humans exhibit a higher degree of evolutionary cell differentiation (specialization) than mice.
- This increased specialization is linked to greater phenotypic complexity, longevity, and body size.
- Complex translational regulation at the mRNA level contributes to augmented cell specialization in humans.
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