Convergent evolution of the genomes of marine mammals.

Nat Genet
Authors
Keywords
Abstract

Marine mammals from different mammalian orders share several phenotypic traits adapted to the aquatic environment and therefore represent a classic example of convergent evolution. To investigate convergent evolution at the genomic level, we sequenced and performed de novo assembly of the genomes of three species of marine mammals (the killer whale, walrus and manatee) from three mammalian orders that share independently evolved phenotypic adaptations to a marine existence. Our comparative genomic analyses found that convergent amino acid substitutions were widespread throughout the genome and that a subset of these substitutions were in genes evolving under positive selection and putatively associated with a marine phenotype. However, we found higher levels of convergent amino acid substitutions in a control set of terrestrial sister taxa to the marine mammals. Our results suggest that, whereas convergent molecular evolution is relatively common, adaptive molecular convergence linked to phenotypic convergence is comparatively rare.

Year of Publication
2015
Journal
Nat Genet
Volume
47
Issue
3
Pages
272-5
Date Published
2015 Mar
ISSN
1546-1718
URL
DOI
10.1038/ng.3198
PubMed ID
25621460
PubMed Central ID
PMC4644735
Links
Grant list
U41 HG002371 / HG / NHGRI NIH HHS / United States
U54 HG003067 / HG / NHGRI NIH HHS / United States
U54 HG003273 / HG / NHGRI NIH HHS / United States
U54 HG003067-08 / HG / NHGRI NIH HHS / United States