Analyses of human-chimpanzee orthologous gene pairs to explore evolutionary hypotheses of aging.

ABSTRACT: Compared to chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), the onset of aging appears to be delayed in the human species. Herein, we studied human-chimpanzee orthologous gene pairs to investigate the selective forces acting on genes associated with aging in different model systems, which allowed us to explore evolutionary hypotheses of aging. Our results show that aging-associated genes tend to be under purifying selection and stronger-than-average functional constraints. We found little evidence of accelerated evolution in aging-associated genes in the hominid or human lineages, and pathways previously related to aging were largely conserved between humans and chimpanzees. In particular, genes associated with aging in non-mammalian model organisms and cellular systems appear to be under stronger function

SUBMITTER: de Magalhaes JP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2288694 | biostudies-literature | 2007 May-Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature