Evolution of C2H2-zinc finger genes revisited.

ABSTRACT:

Background

A recent study by Tadepally et al. describes the clustering of zinc finger (ZF) genes in the human genome and traces their evolutionary history among several placental mammals with complete or draft genome sequences. One of the main conclusions from the paper is that there is a dramatic rate of gene duplication and gene loss, including the surprising result that 118 human ZF genes are absent in chimpanzee. The authors also present evidence concerning the ancestral order in which the ZF-associated KRAB and SCAN domains were recruited to ZF proteins.

Results

Based on our analysis of two of the largest human ZF gene clusters, we find that nearly all of the human genes have plausible orthologs in chimpanzee. The one exception may be a result of the incomplete sequence

SUBMITTER: Thomas JH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2667407 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature