Phylogenetic profiling of genes involved in axonal regeneration

Unlike peripheral nervous system (PNS), the adult mammalian central nervous system (CNS) has limited ability to regenerate after injury. Several factors are known to either promote or inhibit axonal regeneration. In this work, we used phylogenetic profiling to determine whether neuronal regeneration is an evolutionarily conserved process or not. We utilized PrePhyloPro database to find the correlation and similarity in phylogenetic profiles of 13 genes that are known to be involved in either promoting or inhibiting axonal regeneration. Although axonal regeneration does not seem to be evolutionarily conserved, clusters of potentially linked genes were identified. EPHNB3, SEMA3A, SEMA4D, STAT3 and SOCS3 and MAG showing a high degree of correlation in their phylogenetic profiles. The whole proteome analysis of the phylogenetic profiles identified candidate genes that might interact with the reference genes, based on the clustering of the factors and the high degree of correlation with the phylogenetic profiles of the reference genes. These functional linkage between reference and candidate genes suggests involvement in axonal regeneration.