School of Medicine Publications and Presentations
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-2019
Abstract
The evolution of gene expression in mammalian organ development remains largely uncharacterized. Here we report the transcriptomes of seven organs (cerebrum, cerebellum, heart, kidney, liver, ovary and testis) across developmental time points from early organogenesis to adulthood for human, macaque, mouse, rat, rabbit, opossum and chicken. Comparisons of gene expression patterns identified developmental stage correspondences across species, and differences in the timing of key events during the development of the gonads. We found that the breadth of gene expression and the extent of purifying selection gradually decrease during development, whereas the amount of positive selection and expression of new genes increase. We identified differences in the temporal trajectories of expression of individual genes across species, with brain tissues showing the smallest percentage of trajectory changes, and the liver and testis showing the largest. Our work provides a resource of developmental transcriptomes of seven organs across seven species, and comparative analyses that characterize the development and evolution of mammalian organs.
Recommended Citation
Cardoso-Moreira, M., Halbert, J., Valloton, D., Velten, B., Chen, C., Shao, Y., Liechti, A., Ascenção, K., Rummel, C., Ovchinnikova, S., Mazin, P. V., Xenarios, I., Harshman, K., Mort, M., Cooper, D. N., Sandi, C., Soares, M. J., Ferreira, P. G., Afonso, S., Carneiro, M., … Kaessmann, H. (2019). Gene expression across mammalian organ development. Nature, 571(7766), 505–509. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1338-5
Publication Title
Nature
DOI
10.1038/s41586-019-1338-5
Academic Level
faculty
Mentor/PI Department
Office of Human Genetics
Comments
Original published version available at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1338-5