Banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO: BRUNO WILLIAM FERNANDES SILVA

Uma banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO de MESTRADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : BRUNO WILLIAM FERNANDES SILVA
DATE: 07/07/2025
TIME: 14:00
LOCAL: Google Meet
TITLE:

Evolutionary analysis reveals repeated diversification events in immune metabolic pathways

KEY WORDS:

Biological Evolution. Immune System. Immune Surveillance.

PAGES: 40
BIG AREA: Ciências Biológicas
AREA: Biologia Geral
SUMMARY:

The human immune system constitutes an integrated network of cellular and molecular components, essential for protection against pathogens, tumor cell surveillance, and tissue homeostasis. Traditionally categorized into two arms, innate immunity (rapid response) and adaptive immunity (specific and memory-capable), its function relies on intricate cooperation regulated by metabolic pathways that sustain immune responses. Although host-pathogen interaction is widely recognized as an evolutionary driving force, the evolutionary scenario of diversification in immune-associated metabolic pathways remains poorly understood. Furthermore, an integrated perspective is lacking on how the emergence of malignant tumors in vertebrates may have shaped these adaptations. In this study, we employed 1,209 genes involved in 21 immune metabolic pathways (KEGG Pathway) and 1,124 cancer-related genes (OncoKB/COSMIC). Orthology information for these gene lists was acquired from the STRING database and subsequently processed using the R package GeneBridge, which infers the most probable last common ancestor for each orthologous group (OG) within a reference phylogenetic tree containing 476 eukaryotic species. We identified four clades with significant emergence of immune OGs: Metamonada, SAR, Choanoflagellata, and Actinopterygii. In contrast to cancer-associated OGs, which showed greater diversification during the origin of multicellularity, immune OGs exhibited multiple expansion events, particularly during the radiation of jawed vertebrates. Our results indicate that human immune metabolic pathways underwent successive adaptive waves, with marked complexity increase in jawed vertebrates. We propose that the emergence of malignant neoplasms and epithelium-immune system coevolution represented additional selective pressures, driving progressive refinement of immune surveillance mechanisms in this group.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Interno - ***.610.027-** - DIEGO MARQUES COELHO - UFRN
Externo ao Programa - 1046091 - JOAO FIRMINO RODRIGUES NETO - nullPresidente - 1507794 - RODRIGO JULIANI SIQUEIRA DALMOLIN