Formyl peptide receptors (FPRs) were observed to expand in rodents and were recently suggested as candidate vomeronasal chemo-sensory receptors. Since vomeronasal chemosensory receptors usually underwent positive sele...Formyl peptide receptors (FPRs) were observed to expand in rodents and were recently suggested as candidate vomeronasal chemo-sensory receptors. Since vomeronasal chemosensory receptors usually underwent positive selection and evolved concordantly with the vomeronasal organ (VNO) morphology, we surveyed FPRs in primates in which VNO morphology is greatly diverse and thus it would provide us a clearer view of VNO-FPRs evolution. By screening available primate genome sequences, we obtained the FPR repertoires in representative primate species. As a result, we did not find FPR family size expansion in primates. Further analyses showed no evolution-ary force variance between primates with or without VNO structure, which indicated that there was no functional divergence among pri-mates FPRs. Our results suggest that primates lack the VNO-specific FPRs and the FPR expansion is not a common phenomenon in mammals outside rodent lineage, regardless of VNO complexity.展开更多
基金supported by grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 30900793)a grant from Key Project from National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 30930015) to P.S.+1 种基金West Light Foundation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to H.Y.by a start-up fund of "Hundreds Talent Program" from Chinese Academy of Sciences
文摘Formyl peptide receptors (FPRs) were observed to expand in rodents and were recently suggested as candidate vomeronasal chemo-sensory receptors. Since vomeronasal chemosensory receptors usually underwent positive selection and evolved concordantly with the vomeronasal organ (VNO) morphology, we surveyed FPRs in primates in which VNO morphology is greatly diverse and thus it would provide us a clearer view of VNO-FPRs evolution. By screening available primate genome sequences, we obtained the FPR repertoires in representative primate species. As a result, we did not find FPR family size expansion in primates. Further analyses showed no evolution-ary force variance between primates with or without VNO structure, which indicated that there was no functional divergence among pri-mates FPRs. Our results suggest that primates lack the VNO-specific FPRs and the FPR expansion is not a common phenomenon in mammals outside rodent lineage, regardless of VNO complexity.
