Human functional genetic studies are biased against the medically most relevant primate-specific genes.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Many functional, structural and evolutionary features of human genes have been observed to correlate with expression breadth and/or gene age. Here, we systematically explore these correlations.

Results

Gene age and expression breadth are strongly correlated, but contribute independently to the variation of functional, structural and evolutionary features, even when we take account of variation in mRNA expression level. Human genes without orthologs in distant species ('young' genes) tend to be tissue-specific in their expression. As computational inference of gene function often relies on the existence of homologs in other species, and experimental characterization is facilitated by broad and high expression, young, tissue-specific human genes are often the least

SUBMITTER: Hao L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2970608 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature