Pervasive Correlated Evolution in Gene Expression Shapes Cell and Tissue Type Transcriptomes.

ABSTRACT: The evolution and diversification of cell types is a key means by which animal complexity evolves. Recently, hierarchical clustering and phylogenetic methods have been applied to RNA-seq data to infer cell type evolutionary history and homology. A major challenge for interpreting this data is that cell type transcriptomes may not evolve independently due to correlated changes in gene expression. This nonindependence can arise for several reasons, such as common regulatory sequences for genes expressed in multiple tissues, that is, pleiotropic effects of mutations. We develop a model to estimate the level of correlated transcriptome evolution (LCE) and apply it to different data sets. The results reveal pervasive correlated transcriptome evolution among different cell and tissue types. In g

SUBMITTER: Liang C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5800078 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature