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Evolutionary Biology as a Cipher for the Physiology and Pathophysiology of the Lung
Author(s) -
Torday John Steven,
Sakurai Reiko,
Rehan Virender Kumar
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.24.1_supplement.813.1
Subject(s) - biology , lung , phenotype , evolutionary biology , paracrine signalling , computational biology , bioinformatics , physiology , gene , medicine , genetics , receptor
Complex problems in lung physiology and pathophysiology can be solved using an evolutionary functional genomic approach. This is of particular value in the challenging fields of neonatal and adult lung research, which, like evolution, are emergent and contingent. We have been able to configure a working model for lung evolution by tracing paracrine regulation of lung surfactant from the mammalian lung retrograde to the swim bladder of fish. Based on this operating model of cell‐molecular lung evolution, we have regressed the genetic ontogeny and phylogeny of the lung (Y axis of Schematic) against major environmental epochs which have acted as selection pressures for lung evolution (X axis of Schematic)‐ the effects of salinity on antimicrobial peptides and Vitamin D metabolism; terrestrial nutrients, glucocorticoid metabolism and β Adrenergic Receptor expression; atmospheric oxygen fluctuations, lipofibroblasts and leptin signaling. The model shows the alternating effects of extrinsic environmental factors (Y axis: salinity, micronutrients, oxygen) on intrinsic housekeeping genes that evolve into regulatory mechanisms. This model is a cipher for predicting both the pathophysiologic breakdown of the lung, and identifying functional molecular targets for the evolutionarily faithful recapitulation of the integrated lung phenotype. In this new age of genomics, our reach must exceed our grasp.