Oncogenes, tumor suppressor and differentiation genes represent the oldest human gene classes and evolve concurrently

Abstract

Abstract Earlier we showed that human genome contains many evolutionarily young or novel genes with tumor-specific or tumor-predominant expression. We suggest calling such genes Tumor Specifically Expressed, Evolutionarily New (TSEEN) genes. In this paper we performed a study of the evolutionary ages of different classes of human genes, using homology searches in genomes of different taxa in human lineage. We discovered that different classes of human genes have different evolutionary ages and confirmed the existence of TSEEN gene classes. On the other hand, we found that oncogenes, tumor-suppressor genes and differentiation genes are among the oldest gene classes in humans and their evolution occurs concurrently. These findings confirm non-trivial predictions made by our hypothesis of the possible evolutionary role of hereditary tumors. The results may be important for better understanding of tumor biology. TSEEN genes may become the best tumor markers.