title: Inactivation of the MSLNL gene encoding mesothelin-like protein during African great ape evolution.
abstract: Loss of gene function is implicated in the emergence of novel phenotypes during organism evolution. Here, we report the inactivation of the MSLNL gene encoding mesothelin-like protein in African great ape evolution. Human MSLNL has a nonsense mutation in exon 10 and two polymorphic mutations: a frameshift in exon 3 and a nonsense codon in exon 8. The gorilla gene also shows multiple deleterious mutations, including a premature stop codon, a deletion, and a splice site mutation. Molecular evolutionary analysis indicated relaxed selection pressure on MSLNL in African great ape lineages, which suggested that MSLNL might have become inactivated before the divergence of human, chimpanzee and gorilla. The mouse Mslnl gene is highly expressed in olfactory epithelium and moderately expressed in several other tissues. We propose that the loss of MSLNL may be associated with the evolution of the olfactory system in African great apes including human.
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences (BK21 Program), College of Natural Sciences, Chung-Ang University, Seoul 156-756, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Dong-Wook
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Sangkyun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.forename: Dong Seon
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Heui-Soo
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Sang-Beom
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Seo
authors.forename: Yoonsoo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hahn
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D004285:Dogs; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D058851:GPI-Linked Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D020868:Gene Silencing / Q000502:physiology; D006071:Gorilla gorilla / Q000235:genetics; D015186:Hominidae / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D000090204:Mesothelin; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D002679:Pan troglodytes / Q000235:genetics; D057079:Pongo / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017385:Sequence Homology
chemical_list: D058851:GPI-Linked Proteins; C000715528:Msln protein, mouse; D000090204:Mesothelin