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KIR

Certainty Style Key
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True   Likely   Speculative
What is MOCA?
MOCA FAQ...
Human Uniqueness Compared to "Great Apes": 
Likely Difference
MOCA Domain: 
Gene Family Expansion and Loss
MOCA Topic Authors: 
Veronica Searles
James Sikela

The human KIR family encodes lymphocyte receptor for human leukocyte class I antigens. This family is unique in human in that it is separated into two haplotype groups (A and B), defined by centromeric and telomeric motifs. Each haplotype group arose after the Pan-Homo split, with the haplotype-distuinguishing telomeric motifs arising more recently than the centromeric motifs.

Related MOCA Topics
Related Topics:
TitleCertainty
Novel Centromeres, Pericentric Inversions and Pericentromeric ExpansionTrue
Telomere Expansion, Contraction and Subtelomeric RearrangementTrue
Timing

Timing of Appearance of the Difference in the Hominin Lineage.

For this entry assume that

  • the common ancestor of humans and old world monkeys was 25000 thousand (25 million) years ago
  • the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees was 6000 thousand (6 million) years ago
  • the emergence of the genus Homo was 2000 thousand (2 million) years ago
  • the common ancestor of modern humans was 100 thousand years ago

 

Possible Appearance: 
6000 Thousand Years
Probable Appearance: 
1700 Thousand Years
The Human Difference: 

Novel haplotypes

References: 

Pyo C-W, Guethlein LA, Vu Q, Wang R, Abi-Rached L, et al. (2010) Different Patterns of Evolution in the Centromeric and Telomeric Regions of Group A and B Haplotypes of the Human Killer Cell Ig-Like Receptor Locus. PLoS ONE 5(12): e15115.

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