Evolution of Siglec-11 in primates
Description: Sialic acids are a family of nine-carbon sugars that are found at the terminal end of glycan chains on cell surface. Siglec-11 is a sialic-acid receptor that gained expression on brain microglia uniquely in the human lineage, and shows a neuroprotective function in brain immunity. It seems that Siglec-11 contributed to brain evolution in the human lineage.Evolutionary analysis of Siglec-11 revealed that Siglec-11 functions as paired receptors with Siglec-16 on human brain microglia. Both Siglec-11 and Siglec-16 recognize oligo-sialic acids, which are enriched in the brain. A mutation that conferred the brain expression of Siglec-11 occurred about one million years ago. It is therefore possible to consider that Siglec-11/Siglec-16 paired receptors contributed to the gain of human-specific cell-cell communication in the brain in the later stage of human evolution.
Amount: ¥5,460,000
Funding type: research
Funder scheme: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Investigator: TOSHIYUKI HAYAKAWA
Institution: Kyushu University(2013)Kyoto University(2011-2012)
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Funded outputs count: 3
Funder award ID: 23570271
OpenAlex ID: G4920280830