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Lipovich L, Hou ZC, Jia H, Sinkler C, McGowen M, Sterner KN, Weckle A, Sugalski AB, Pipes L, Gatti DL, Mason CE, Sherwood CC, Hof PR, Kuzawa CW, Grossman LI, Goodman M, Wildman DE. High-throughput RNA sequencing reveals structural differences of orthologous brain-expressed genes between western lowland gorillas and humans. J Comp Neurol 2015; 524:288-308. [PMID: 26132897 DOI: 10.1002/cne.23843] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2015] [Revised: 06/20/2015] [Accepted: 06/23/2015] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
The human brain and human cognitive abilities are strikingly different from those of other great apes despite relatively modest genome sequence divergence. However, little is presently known about the interspecies divergence in gene structure and transcription that might contribute to these phenotypic differences. To date, most comparative studies of gene structure in the brain have examined humans, chimpanzees, and macaque monkeys. To add to this body of knowledge, we analyze here the brain transcriptome of the western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla), an African great ape species that is phylogenetically closely related to humans, but with a brain that is approximately one-third the size. Manual transcriptome curation from a sample of the planum temporale region of the neocortex revealed 12 protein-coding genes and one noncoding-RNA gene with exons in the gorilla unmatched by public transcriptome data from the orthologous human loci. These interspecies gene structure differences accounted for a total of 134 amino acids in proteins found in the gorilla that were absent from protein products of the orthologous human genes. Proteins varying in structure between human and gorilla were involved in immunity and energy metabolism, suggesting their relevance to phenotypic differences. This gorilla neocortical transcriptome comprises an empirical, not homology- or prediction-driven, resource for orthologous gene comparisons between human and gorilla. These findings provide a unique repository of the sequences and structures of thousands of genes transcribed in the gorilla brain, pointing to candidate genes that may contribute to the traits distinguishing humans from other closely related great apes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leonard Lipovich
- Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, 48201.,Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, 48201
| | - Zhuo-Cheng Hou
- Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, 48201.,Department of Animal Genetics, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China
| | - Hui Jia
- Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, 48201
| | - Christopher Sinkler
- Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, 48201
| | - Michael McGowen
- Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, 48201.,School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Kirstin N Sterner
- Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, 97403
| | - Amy Weckle
- Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, 48201.,Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, 61801.,Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, 61801
| | - Amara B Sugalski
- Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, 48201
| | - Lenore Pipes
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York, 10021
| | - Domenico L Gatti
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Medicine, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, 48201.,Cardiovascular Research Institute, School of Medicine, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, 48201
| | - Christopher E Mason
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York, 10021
| | - Chet C Sherwood
- Department of Anthropology and the Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, 20052
| | - Patrick R Hof
- Fishberg Department of Neuroscience and Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, 10029.,New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology, New York, New York, 10024
| | | | - Lawrence I Grossman
- Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, 48201
| | - Morris Goodman
- Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, 48201.,Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, School of Medicine, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, 48201
| | - Derek E Wildman
- Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, 48201.,Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, 61801.,Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, 61801
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