Death and Resurrection of the Human IRGM Gene
Present within the human body, lye Immunity-related GTPases, more commonly known as IRG genes. These genes play the imperative role of protecting the human body from intracellular pathogens.
In a recent study led by Evan Eichler's genome sciences laboratory at the University of Washington and the Howard Hughes Institute, it was found that the IRGM gene, a constituent of the IRG family, was deleted from human genetics in early primate evolution. Through the study of this gene family in primates, researchers found that the IRGM gene cluster was deleted approximately 50 million years ago, after the divergence of the anthropoids from prosimians. According to researchers, it is suggested that through phylogenetic analyses, the presence of the IRGM gene within humans/primates has been extinct for millions of years.
By researchers studying Old World and New World primate species, an insight into the rebirth of the IRGM gene was gained. Through comparative sequence analysis of the primates, it could be seen that an “individual IRGM gene became pseudogenized as a result of an Alu retrotransposition event in the anthropoid common ancestor that disrupted the open reading frame (ORF)”.Researches found that “the ORF was re-established as a part of a polymorphic stop codon in the common ancestor of humans and great apes”.
The rebirth of the IRGM gene in modern humans is also said to be the result of the insertion of an endogenous retrovirus. The insertion of this retrovirus was said to alter many cell processes within the body. These included: transcription initiation, splicing and the expression profile for the IRGM gene. So through Evan Eichler’s and his team’s research, it has been revealed that there are cases of death and rebirth of genes within the human body.
Overall, I would say it’s another big leap in genetics for man kind...
Journal Link: http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pgen.1000403
1 Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America, 2 Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Seattle, Washington, United States of America, 3 Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (UPF-CSIC), Barcelona, Spain, 4 Universita' degli Studi di Bari, Bari, Italy, 5 Institute of Genetics, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
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