Acquisition of social behavior in mammalian lineages is related with duplication events of FPR genes.

Liliana Silva, Tito Mendes, Agostinho Antunes

Genomics 2020 Jul

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Formyl peptide receptors (FPRs) were firstly detected in immune cells where they act as key mediators of leukocyte chemotaxis, promoting the host defense against pathogens. Recently, three paralogs were reported in Homo sapiens (FPR1-3) and seven paralogs in Mus musculus (FPR1, FPRrs1-4, FPRrs6 and FPRrs7), but information from other mammalian lineages is scarce, including ambiguities in the current nomenclature system (e.g. absence of an orthologous relation between human and mouse FPR3). Here, we explored the FPR gene repertoire across 175 mammalian genomes using integrative phylogenetic and synteny analyses to describe the evolutionary history of FPRs in all mammalian orders. FPRs present a well conserved synteny but showed dynamic episodes of duplication events specific to several mammalian orders (Chiroptera, Perissodactyla, Primates and Rodentia), with up to 11 paralogs in some cases. Despite FPRs could be expressed in a panoply of tissues, there is a suggestion that they maintain an exclusive immunological function. However, we observed that species with social behavior have higher repertoire of FPRs in contrast with species with solitary lifestyle. Such evidence suggests a strict relationship between the optimization of the immunological system (by FPR duplication patterns) and the mammalian social behavior. Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Citation

Liliana Silva, Tito Mendes, Agostinho Antunes. Acquisition of social behavior in mammalian lineages is related with duplication events of FPR genes. Genomics. 2020 Jul;112(4):2778-2783