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Updated: Jul 13, 2025
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Collection and Extraction of Saliva DNA for Next Generation Sequencing
Published on: August 27, 2014
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A Catalog of Coding Sequence Variations in Salivary Proteins' Genes Occurring during Recent Human Evolution
Lorena Di Pietro1,2, Mozhgan Boroumand3, Wanda Lattanzi1,2
1Dipartimento Scienze della Vita e Sanità Pubblica, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 00168 Rome, Italy.
International Journal of Molecular Sciences
|October 14, 2023
Summary
Recent human evolution altered salivary protein genes, introducing new functions and potentially influencing diet. However, no evidence of archaic hominin gene transfer was found in these salivary genes.
Area of Science:
- Human Evolution
- Genomics
- Proteomics
Background:
- Saliva contains over 2000 proteins with largely unknown functions.
- Salivary protein genes show poor conservation across species, suggesting evolutionary adaptation.
- Understanding genetic changes in salivary proteins is key to oral cavity homeostasis.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate nucleotide substitutions in human salivary protein genes compared to ancient hominins.
- To identify evolutionary adaptations in salivary proteome components.
- To explore the functional impact of genetic variations on oral health and human diet.
Main Methods:
- Comparative analysis of nucleotide substitutions in human salivary protein gene loci.
- Mapping of sequence variants in coding and noncoding regions.
- Identification of missense substitutions affecting protein precursor cleavage sites.
Main Results:
- 3472 sequence variants were identified in salivary protein genes.
- Coding region variations were more frequent than expected genome-wide.
- Specific substitutions in PRB1 and PRB2 genes altered protein processing.
- Fixed nucleotide changes in modern humans were a small fraction of total substitutions.
Conclusions:
- Recent human evolution has introduced functional changes in salivary proteins.
- These genetic alterations may impact oral cavity homeostasis and human dietary habits.
- No evidence of adaptive introgression from archaic hominins in the studied salivary genes was detected.
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