Multi-species microarrays reveal the effect of sequence divergence on gene expression profiles

摘要: Interspecies comparisons of gene expression levels will increase our understanding the evolution transcriptional mechanisms and help to identify targets natural selection. This approach holds particular promise for apes, as many human-specific adaptations are thought result from differences in rather than coding sequence. To date, however, all studies directly comparing interspecies have been performed on single-species arrays, so that it has impossible distinguish differential hybridization due sequence mismatches underlying differences. evaluate severity this potential problem, we constructed a new multiprimate cDNA array using probes human, chimpanzee, orangutan, rhesus. We find large effect divergence signal, even closest pair species, human chimpanzee. By analyses with results multispecies examine how estimates affected by divergence. Our indicate naive use arrays direct can yield spurious results.