Enhanced Negative Regulation of the DHH Signaling Pathway as a Potential Mechanism of Ascrotal Testes in Laurasiatherians

Unsuccessful descent of testes in humans and other scrotal mammals can result in cryptorchidism, consequent abnormalities and a high risk of malignancy. However, many male adult mammals possessing natural ascrotal testes are as viable and healthy as other scrotal mammals. This study performed an evo...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Evolutionary biology 2021-09, Vol.48 (3), p.335-345
Main Authors: Chai, Simin, Tian, Ran, Yang, Ying, Yang, Guang, Xu, Shixia, Ren, Wenhua
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amino acids
Animal Genetics and Genomics
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Cryptorchidism
Developmental Biology
Down-regulation
Ecology
Evolution
Evolutionary Biology
Hedgehog protein
Human Genetics
Life Sciences
Malignancy
Molecular evolution
Positive selection
Research Article
Signal transduction
Testes
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Unsuccessful descent of testes in humans and other scrotal mammals can result in cryptorchidism, consequent abnormalities and a high risk of malignancy. However, many male adult mammals possessing natural ascrotal testes are as viable and healthy as other scrotal mammals. This study performed an evolutionary analysis on the desert hedgehog (DHH) signaling pathway, an important regulator for testicular development, mainly in laurasiatherians. Significant positive selection, accelerated evolutionary rates, and specific amino acid substitutions were identified in ascrotal species, some of which caused radical changes in physicochemical and biological properties. Considering that most signs of positive selection were identified in genes responsible for or related to negative regulation, we suggest that the enhanced negative regulation of the DHH signaling pathway drives, at least in part, the evolution of ascrotal testes in laurasiatherians and other mammals. This study could provide some novel insights into the evolution of natural healthy ‘cryptorchidism’ in mammals and into the convergent molecular evolution of the complex trait.
ISSN:0071-3260
1934-2845
DOI:10.1007/s11692-021-09542-0