{
  "abstract": "Regulatory variation is widely recognized as a driver of evolution within and between species, including in the primate lineage. Evidence for potentially adaptive regulatory evolution in primates comes from both sequence-based tests for selection and cross-species comparisons of gene expression. However, comparative studies of gene expression have tended to focus on baseline cellular states, despite growing evidence that context-dependent gene regulation is important. Here, we investigate the evolution of gene expression in lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) from 6 primate lineages (humans, chimpanzees, bonobos, western gorillas, Sumatran orangutans, and rhesus macaques) using data from both control and 5 perturbed cellular conditions (n=22-25 individuals per condition). Analyzing baseline expression data, we find that genes involved in immunity often exhibit lineage-specific transcriptional shifts, and that these genes occur near regions with lineage-specific sequence acceleration and lineage-specific epigenomic states. However, the subset of genes that respond to in vitro perturbations have evolved at significantly higher rates than environmentally-insensitive genes, a finding we replicate in an independent four-species dataset of primary white blood cells (n=26). Together, our findings support the argument that focusing on baseline states alone provides a biased view of gene regulatory evolution, and suggest that studying gene regulation in dynamic contexts can enrich our understanding of primate evolution.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology"
  ],
  "article_type": "New results",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 8,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "A. Durvasula"
    },
    {
      "name": "A. Longtin"
    },
    {
      "name": "A. M. Arner"
    },
    {
      "name": "K. Köhler"
    },
    {
      "name": "I. Rivas-Gonzalez"
    },
    {
      "name": "J. Tung"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "G. Housman"
    },
    {
      "name": "A. J. Lea"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6bham59v75jm3.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.64898/2026.09.23.753790",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.23.753790v1.full",
  "id": "6bham59v75jm3",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.23.753790v1",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-NC-ND",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-NC-ND",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "biorxiv",
      "evolutionary biology"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "1311|Evolution and Genetic Dynamics"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7214202462",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.23.753790v1.full.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-23",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6bham59v75jm3.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:24:20Z",
      "native_id": "10.64898/2026.09.23.753790",
      "source": "biorxiv",
      "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.23.753790v1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "biorxiv:evolutionary biology",
      "subfield": "evolutionary-biology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Accelerated Evolution of Context-Dependent Gene Expression in Primate Immune Cells",
  "title_text": "Accelerated Evolution of Context-Dependent Gene Expression in Primate Immune Cells",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:24:20Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6bham59v75jm3",
  "venue": "bioRxiv",
  "versions": []
}