Computer & Information Engineering College, Inner Mongolia Normal University, Inner Mongolia, Hohhot 010022, China.
J Genet Genomics. 2013 Aug 20;40(8):399-412. doi: 10.1016/j.jgg.2013.04.011. Epub 2013 Jun 13.
Oct4 is one of the key pluripotent factors essential for embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. Oct4 belongs to the POU domain family, which contains multiples genes with various important functions. Although the function of Oct4 has been extensively studied, detailed comparison of Oct4 with other POU family genes and their evolutionary analysis are still lacking. Here, we systematically identified POU family genes from lower to higher animal species. We observed an expansion of POU family genes in vertebrates, with an additional increment in mammalian genomes. We analyzed the phylogenetic relationship, tissue specific expression profiles and regulatory networks of POU family genes of the human genome, and predicted the putative binding microRNAs of human POU family genes. These results provide the first comprehensive evolutionary and comparative analysis of POU family genes, which will help to better understand the relationships among POU family genes and shed light on their future functional studies.
Oct4 是胚胎干细胞和诱导多能干细胞（iPS 细胞）中必需的关键多能性因子之一。Oct4 属于 POU 结构域家族，该家族包含多个具有各种重要功能的基因。尽管 Oct4 的功能已得到广泛研究，但 Oct4 与其他 POU 家族基因的详细比较及其进化分析仍很缺乏。在这里，我们从低等到高等动物物种系统地鉴定了 POU 家族基因。我们观察到脊椎动物中 POU 家族基因的扩张，在哺乳动物基因组中又有了额外的增加。我们分析了人类基因组中 POU 家族基因的系统发育关系、组织特异性表达谱和调控网络，并预测了人类 POU 家族基因的潜在结合 microRNAs。这些结果提供了 POU 家族基因的首次全面进化和比较分析，将有助于更好地理解 POU 家族基因之间的关系，并为它们未来的功能研究提供启示。
