Genetic differences between species have historically been looked at by scientists. This doesn't provide the full picture. The genes that make up a species's genes are not the only things that make it different. Understanding the differences between species' proteomes is more important than the differences between genomes.
The proteomes of skin cells from 11 mammals have been compared in a new study by researchers at Yale.
They found that some genes are more variable between species than others, giving clues about which genes are more important in evolution. Some species are more resistant to cancer than others.
Their findings were published in September.
"If you want to understand biological diversity, along with knowing how the DNA is different across species, you may also want to know how species behave, develop, and look differently," said Gnter Wagner.
According to an assistant professor of pharmacology at Yale School of Medicine, how a species looks, behaves, and develops are more closely related to the levels of proteins than to the genes.
The technology to do large-scale analyses has not existed. Researchers are now able to do this type of work with the data-independent acquisition mass spectrometry method.
It is a conceptual and technical breakthrough that allows us to work at a higher level.
The Systems Biology Institute and the Yale Cancer Biology Institute are both located on the West campus. They collaborated after attending a cancer systems biology symposium.
The skin cells of 11 mammals were quantified for the study, including rabbits, rats, monkeys, humans, sheep, cows, pigs, dogs, cats and horses.
They found that the analysis provided information that wasn't available through other methods. While previous research has looked at differences in mRNA, they found that measuring proteins gave additional information that couldn't be captured by analyzing mRNA alone.
There is a strand of mRNA. While a single molecule can have a particular function, it can also interact with each other and act as a group. The information will not be provided if you just look at mRNA.
The mRNA profile would be misleading.
The team looked at variation across species and across individuals within the same species, and found that most of the time, levels that were more variable between individuals were more variable between species. There were some that weren't compatible with that trend. In this case, the differences between species and individuals of one species were more pronounced than the differences between species and individuals of another species. The researchers think those functions are important in the evolution of the mammal.
From an evolutionary point of view, inter-species versus individual differences are very interesting. We can use the information we get from comparing the two to predict the capacity for evolution.
The researchers compared the different removal systems. They found that one of the main systems was the same across species and the other was different among mammals.
How fast a cell can change it's state is determined by the turnover of the proteins. He said that if a new signal came in, the cell needed to throw out the proteins that were necessary for its previous state.
How fast a cell can change state is relevant to cancer.
Cancer cells can affect healthy cells. It will be important to know if the turnover rates of the cells are related to the influence of the tumor cells. Hoofed animals, such as cows and pigs, have cells that are less able to change state and less susceptible to the signals from cancer cells, which may explain why they are more resistant to cancer.
Understanding cancer vulnerability is one of the potential applications of this work. They can begin to correlate the differences between species with any other trait that is different.
Chemical modifications occur when other molecule attach to aProtein Modifications play a major role in influencing the function of the human body. The researchers assessed one type of modification in this study, and found that it wasn't related to variations in the number of genes in a single cell. Other modifications will be assessed by the researchers.
"Biological variabilities between species and individuals are what shape biological diversity on Earth." Understanding the differences in the genes of different species will advance our understanding of the world around us.
More information: Qian Ba et al, Proteotype coevolution and quantitative diversity across 11 mammalian species, Science Advances (2022). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abn0756 Journal information: Science Advances
All Rights Reserved © 2024
