title: Frequency of cancer genes on the chicken z chromosome and its human homologues: implications for sex chromosome evolution.
abstract: It has been suggested that there are special evolutionary forces that act on sex chromosomes. Hemizygosity of the X chromosome in male mammals has led to selection for male-advantage genes, and against genes posing extreme risks of tumor development. A similar bias against cancer genes should also apply to the Z chromosome that is present as a single copy in female birds. Using comparative database analysis, we found that there was no significant underrepresentation of cancer genes on the chicken Z, nor on the Z-orthologous regions of human chromosomes 5 and 9. This result does not support the hypothesis that genes involved in cancer are selected against on the sex chromosomes.
authors.affiliation: Comparative Genomics Group, Research School of Biological Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia.
authors.forename: Rami
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Stiglec
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kohn
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fong
authors.forename: Tariq
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ezaz
authors.forename: Horst
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hameister
authors.forename: Jennifer A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Marshall Graves