The identification and functional implications of human-specific "fixed" amino acid substitutions in the glutamate receptor family.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The glutamate receptors (GluRs) play a vital role in the mediation of excitatory synaptic transmission in the central nervous system. To clarify the evolutionary dynamics and mechanisms of the GluR genes in the lineage leading to humans, we determined the complete sequences of the coding regions and splice sites of 26 chimpanzee GluR genes.

Results

We found that all of the reading frames and splice sites of these genes reported in humans were completely conserved in chimpanzees, suggesting that there were no gross structural changes in humans after their divergence from the human-chimpanzee common ancestor. We observed low KA/KS ratios in both humans and chimpanzees, and we found no evidence of accelerated evolution. We identified 30 human-specific "fixed" amino a

SUBMITTER: Goto H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2753569 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature