The role of positive selection in determining the molecular cause of species differences in disease.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Related species, such as humans and chimpanzees, often experience the same disease with varying degrees of pathology, as seen in the cases of Alzheimer's disease, or differing symptomatology as in AIDS. Furthermore, certain diseases such as schizophrenia, epithelial cancers and autoimmune disorders are far more frequent in humans than in other species for reasons not associated with lifestyle. Genes that have undergone positive selection during species evolution are indicative of functional adaptations that drive species differences. Thus we investigate whether biomedical disease differences between species can be attributed to positively selected genes.

Results

We identified genes that putatively underwent positive selection during the evolution of humans and fou

SUBMITTER: Vamathevan JJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2576240 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature