A phylogenetic approach to gene expression data: evidence for the evolutionary origin of mammalian leukocyte phenotypes.

ABSTRACT: The evolution of multicellular organisms involved the evolution of specialized cell types performing distinct functions; and specialized cell types presumably arose from more generalized ancestral cell types as a result of mutational event, such as gene duplication and changes in gene expression. We used characters based on gene expression data to reconstruct evolutionary relationships among 11 types of lymphocytes by the maximum parsimony method. The resulting phylogenetic tree showed expected patterns including separation of the lymphoid and myeloid lineages; clustering together of granulocyte types; and pairing of phenotypically similar cell types such as T-helper cells type 1 and T-helper cells type 2 (Th1 and Th2). We used phylogenetic analyses of sequence data to determine the time o

SUBMITTER: Hughes AL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2810715 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jul-Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature