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PMID: 15316687 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Genomic organization and evolutionary analysis of Ly49 genes encoding the rodent natural killer cell receptors: rapid evolution by repeated gene duplication.

Immunogenetics ·Vol. 56 ·No. 5 ·2004-08-00 ·Pages 343-54

Hao L, Nei M

Abstract

Ly49 genes regulate the cytotoxic activity of natural killer (NK) cells in rodents and provide important protection against virus-infected or tumor cells. About 15 Ly49 genes have been identified in mice, but only a few genes have been reported to date in rats. Here we studied all Ly49 genes in the entire rat genome sequence and identified 17 putative functional and 16 putative non-functional genes together with their genomic locations in a 1.8-Mb region of chromosome 4. Phylogenetic analysis of these genes indicated that the Ly49 gene family expanded rapidly in recent years, and this expansion was mediated by both tandem and genomic block duplication. The joint phylogenetic analysis of mouse and rat genes suggested that the most recent common ancestor of the two species had at least several Ly49 genes, but that the majority of current duplicate genes were generated after divergence of the two species. In both species Ly49 genes are apparently subject to birth-and-death evolution, but the birth and death rates of Ly49 genes are higher in rats than in mice. The rate of gene expansion in the Ly49 gene family in rats is one of the highest among all mammalian multigene families so far studied. The biochemical function of Ly49 genes is essentially the same as that of KIR genes in primates, but the molecular structures of the two groups of NK cell receptors are very different. A hypothesis was presented to explain the origin of the differential use of Ly49 and KIR genes in rodents and primates.

MeSH Terms
Animals Antigens, Ly/genetics Evolution, Molecular Gene Duplication Humans Lectins, C-Type Mice Phylogeny Primates/genetics Rats Receptors, Immunologic/genetics Receptors, NK Cell Lectin-Like Sequence Analysis, DNA
Chemicals
Antigens, Ly Lectins, C-Type Receptors, Immunologic Receptors, NK Cell Lectin-Like
Authors & Affiliations
2 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Hao Li
Department of Biology, Institute of Molecular Evolutionary Genetics, Pennsylvania State University, 208 Mueller Laboratory, University Park, PA 16802, USA. [email protected]
Nei Masatoshi
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Article Info
Journal
Immunogenetics
Abbr.
Immunogenetics
ISSN
0093-7711
DOI
10.1007/s00251-004-0703-0
Email
[email protected]
Published
2004-08-00
Epub
2004-00-14
Pages
343-54
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
0420404
Subset
IM
Grants
NIGMS NIH HHS · GM20293 · United States
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1007/s00251-004-0703-0 View journal details
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