The Organization of the Keratin I and II Gene Clusters in Placental Mammals and Marsupials Show a Striking Similarity

The study analyzed the keratin I and II gene clusters in the opossum Monodelphis domestica and compared them with human keratin clusters, revealing a striking similarity in their organization. Both human and marsupial keratin gene clusters showed similar subdomains, suggesting a common ancestral organization in mammals. The opossum keratin genes were found to be larger and more numerous than their human counterparts, with longer intergenic distances and a lack of pseudogenes. The research highlighted the evolutionary significance of hair keratin genes, which arose through gene duplications and sequence drift, forming subdomains within the keratin clusters. The study proposed a synteny relation between opossum and human genes based on sequence conservation, contributing to the understanding of keratin gene evolution in mammals.