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Vol 43(2009) N 6 p. 954-960; E.N. Shustrova1, I.I. Artamonova2,3 The evolutionary history of the SSX family of human C/T-antigens 1Department of Bioengineering and Bioinformatics, Moscow State University, Moscow, 119992, Russia2Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow, 119991, Russia 3Kharkevich Institute for Information Transmission Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 127994, Russia Received - 2009-02-25; Accepted - 2009-02-25 C/T-antigens are endogenous proteins expressed in normal testis, ovary, and placenta, or in a variety of tumors. Such expression pattern makes the C/T antigens promising targets for cancer vaccines. The SSX family comprises several C/T antigens. Here we applied comparative genomics techniques to study the evolution of the SSX genes. The human genomic SSX locus includes 11 genes localized on the X chromosome in two separate regions 4 Mb apart. Recent pseudogenization of two SSX genes was demonstrated using the available expression data. A comparative analysis of the human, chimpanzee and mouse genomic loci allowed us to describe the phylogeny of the family and to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the locus in terms of elementary events. C/T-antigens, gene family, gene and genome evolution, comparative genomics, chromosome rearrangements |
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