Picone, BarbaraChristoffels, Alan2015-06-092015-06-092014Barbara Picone, Alan Christoffels. (2014). Molecular evolution of key receptor genes in primates and non-human primates. International Journal of Genetics and Genomics. 2(4): 57-61. doi: 10.11648/j.ijgg.20140204.122376-7359http://hdl.handle.net/10566/1505African primates remain an unexplored source of information required to complete the origin and evolution of many human pathogens. Current studies have shown the importance of several receptor human genes implicated in host resistance or susceptibility to tuberculosis. The validation of these genes in Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection makes them an excellent model system to investigate the mode of selective pressures that may act on pathogen defense genes. To trace the evolutionary history of these genes, the report describes preliminary results for eight receptors human genes having either a significant or a possible association with Tuberculosis (TB). By using a combination of maximum likelihood approaches, evidence of positive selection were detected for four genes. The analysis between species, nevertheless, shows a clear pattern of nucleotide variation mostly compatible with purifying selection.enSciencePG applies the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license to works we publish. Under this license, authors retain ownership of the copyright for their content, but grant SciencePG a non-exclusive license to publish the work in paper form and allow anyone to download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute and/or copy the content as long as the original authors and source are cited. No permission is required from the authors or the publishers. Appropriate attribution can be provided by simply citing the original work. For any reuse or redistribution of a work, users must also make clear the license terms under which the work was published.Receptor genesTuberculosisPhylogenyNon-human primatesAdaptive evolutionArticle