Recently, a research team led by Prof. YU Jun and Prof. LEI Hongxing at Beijing Institute of Genomics (BIG), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), conducted comprehensive network-based analyses on the functional connection of human DPGs.
Divergently paired genes (DPGs), also known as bidirectional (head-to-head positioned) genes, are conserved across species and lineages, and thus deemed to be exceptional in genomic organization and functional regulation. Despite previous investigations on the features of their conservation and gene organization, the functional relationship among DPGs in a given species and lineage has not been thoroughly clarified.
In this work, researchers have conducted comprehensive analysis on the functional connection of DPGs that are special form of gene organization and cover a broad range of functions including core cellular and environmental response related functions.
An interesting finding is that the two members of the DPGs tend to be partitioned into different pathways and thus enable simultaneous control or connecting of two or more pathways by a single promoter.
What’s more, through comparing to randomly paired genes as a control, scientists also find that the DPG pairs have a tendency to be clustered in similar ‘‘cellular components’’ and involved in similar ‘‘molecular functions’’.
The functional network bridged by DPGs consists of three major modules. The largest module includes many house-keeping genes (HKGs) involved in core cellular activities. This module also shows low variation in expression in both central nervous system (CNS) and non-CNS tissues.
Based on analyses of disease transcriptome data, the researchers further suggest that this particular module may play crucial roles in HIV infection and its disease mechanism. In addition, based on the overall conservation across species and lineages and involvement in diverse functional networks, the researchers propose that DPGs may be a class of genes evolved to create coordination for both conserved core house-keeping and tissue-specific functions.
Recently, a research team led by Prof. YU Jun and Prof. LEI Hongxing at Beijing Institute of Genomics (BIG), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), conducted comprehensive network-based analyses on the functional connection of human DPGs.
Divergently paired genes (DPGs), also known as bidirectional (head-to-head positioned) genes, are conserved across species and lineages, and thus deemed to be exceptional in genomic organization and functional regulation. Despite previous investigations on the features of their conservation and gene organization, the functional relationship among DPGs in a given species and lineage has not been thoroughly clarified.
In this work, researchers have conducted comprehensive analysis on the functional connection of DPGs that are special form of gene organization and cover a broad range of functions including core cellular and environmental response related functions.
An interesting finding is that the two members of the DPGs tend to be partitioned into different pathways and thus enable simultaneous control or connecting of two or more pathways by a single promoter.
What’s more, through comparing to randomly paired genes as a control, scientists also find that the DPG pairs have a tendency to be clustered in similar ‘‘cellular components’’ and involved in similar ‘‘molecular functions’’.
The functional network bridged by DPGs consists of three major modules. The largest module includes many house-keeping genes (HKGs) involved in core cellular activities. This module also shows low variation in expression in both central nervous system (CNS) and non-CNS tissues.
Based on analyses of disease transcriptome data, the researchers further suggest that this particular module may play crucial roles in HIV infection and its disease mechanism. In addition, based on the overall conservation across species and lineages and involvement in diverse functional networks, the researchers propose that DPGs may be a class of genes evolved to create coordination for both conserved core house-keeping and tissue-specific functions.
The work was published on PLos one
Cross comparison of House-keeping Genes (HKGs) functional categories with the DPG network. (Image by YU and LEI's group)
Contact:
Prof. YU Jun junyu@big.ac.cn
Prof. LEI Hongxing leihx@big.ac.cn