Human core duplicon gene families: game changers or game players?

Bekpen, Cemalettin; Tautz, Diethard

Although Morpheus proteins were initially suggested to interact with the nuclear pore complex [14] , there has not yet been evidence to support this assumption. They were shown to be overexpressed in the retina of patients with macular degeneration [51] , but the functional significance of this is unclear. Other observations indicate an involvement in innate immunity, especially with respect to viruses. Morpheus proteins were suggested to be involved in human immunodeficiency virus resistance [52, 53] , were shown to interact with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and were shown to restore the interferon-beta response in SARS-CoV cells [54] . Both Morpheus gene types (NPIPA and NPIPB) are also upregulated upon polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid (poly I:C) treatment (viral mimic), and auto-antibodies against NPIPB protein in humans have been detected [7] . It is thus possible that Morpheus genes could cause autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, myasthenia gravis and Wegener's granulomatosis [55, 56] . Notably, newly evolved genes in mammals can generally create complications with respect to generating autoimmune responses [57] .