help button home button Genetics AJP: Heart and Circ
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Originally published as Genetics Published Articles Ahead of Print on April 16, 2005.

Genetics, Vol. 170, 801-806, June 2005, Copyright © 2005
doi:10.1534/genetics.105.040527

This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
genetics.105.040527v1
170/2/801    most recent
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Wang, Y.-q.
Right arrow Articles by Su, B.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Wang, Y.-q.
Right arrow Articles by Su, B.

Accelerated Evolution of the Pituitary Adenylate Cyclase-Activating Polypeptide Precursor Gene During Human Origin

Yin-qiu Wang*,{dagger}, Ya-ping Qian{ddagger}, Su Yang*,{dagger}, Hong Shi*,{dagger}, Cheng-hong Liao*,{dagger}, Hong-Kun Zheng§, Jun Wang§, Alice A. Lin**, L. Luca Cavalli-Sforza**, Peter A. Underhill**, Ranajit Chakraborty{ddagger}, Li Jin{ddagger},{dagger}{dagger} and Bing Su*,{ddagger},1

* Key Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan 650223, China
{ddagger} Center for Genome Information, Department of Environmental Health, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45267
§ Beijing Genomics Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101300, China
** Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305
{dagger}{dagger} State Key Laboratory of Genetics Engineering and Center for Anthropological Studies, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
{dagger} Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

1 Corresponding author: Key Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 32 Jiao-Chang-Dong-Lu, Kunming, Yunan 650223, China.
E-mail: sub{at}mail.kiz.ac.cn

Pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) is a neuropeptide abundantly expressed in the central nervous system and involved in regulating neurogenesis and neuronal signal transduction. The amino acid sequence of PACAP is extremely conserved across vertebrate species, indicating a strong functional constraint during the course of evolution. However, through comparative sequence analysis, we demonstrated that the PACAP precursor gene underwent an accelerated evolution in the human lineage since the divergence from chimpanzees, and the amino acid substitution rate in humans is at least seven times faster than that in other mammal species resulting from strong Darwinian positive selection. Eleven human-specific amino acid changes were identified in the PACAP precursors, which are conserved from murine to African apes. Protein structural analysis suggested that a putative novel neuropeptide might have originated during human evolution and functioned in the human brain. Our data suggested that the PACAP precursor gene underwent adaptive changes during human origin and may have contributed to the formation of human cognition.




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 GeneticsHome page
H. L. Kim and Y. Satta
Population Genetic Analysis of the N-Acylsphingosine Amidohydrolase Gene Associated With Mental Activity in Humans
Genetics, March 1, 2008; 178(3): 1505 - 1515.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2005 by the Genetics Society of America.