Further statistical analysis for genome-wide expression evolution in primate brain/liver/fibroblast tissues.
In spite of only a 1-2 per cent genomic DNA sequence difference, humans and chimpanzees differ considerably in behaviour and cognition. Affymetrix microarray technology provides a novel approach to addressing a long-term debate on whether the difference between humans and chimpanzees results from the alteration of gene expressions. Here, we used several statistical methods (distance method, two-sample t-tests, regularised t-tests, ANOVA and bootstrapping) to detect the differential expression pattern between humans and great apes. Our analysis shows that the pattern we observed before is robust against various statistical methods; that is, the pronounced expression changes occurred on the human lineage after the split from chimpanzees, and that the dramatic brain expression alterations in humans may be mainly driven by a set of genes with increased expression (up-regulated) rather than decreased expression (down-regulated).
Gu
Jianying
J
Department of Genetics, Developmental and Cellular Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA.
Gu
Xun
X
D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism*; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000378:metabolism; D015870:Gene Expression; D016678:Genome; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D011323:Primates / Q000235:genetics*; D013045:Species Specificity