Identification and analysis of unitary pseudogenes: historic and contemporary gene losses in humans and other primates.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Unitary pseudogenes are a class of unprocessed pseudogenes without functioning counterparts in the genome. They constitute only a small fraction of annotated pseudogenes in the human genome. However, as they represent distinct functional losses over time, they shed light on the unique features of humans in primate evolution.

Results

We have developed a pipeline to detect human unitary pseudogenes through analyzing the global inventory of orthologs between the human genome and its mammalian relatives. We focus on gene losses along the human lineage after the divergence from rodents about 75 million years ago. In total, we identify 76 unitary pseudogenes, including previously annotated ones, and many novel ones. By comparing each of these to its functioning ortholog

SUBMITTER: Zhang ZD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2864566 | biostudies-literature | 2010

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature