The genome of the pygmy right whale illuminates the evolution of rorquals
Background: Baleen whales are a clade of gigantic and highly specialized marine mammals. Their genomes have been used to investigate their complex evolutionary history and to decipher the molecular mechanisms that allowed them to reach these dimensions. However, many unanswered questions remain, esp...
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BioMed Central (BMC)
2023
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ftulundlup:oai:lup.lub.lu.se:f280b9a9-a231-4c84-88a9-93178611e7f1 2024-05-19T07:38:01+00:00 The genome of the pygmy right whale illuminates the evolution of rorquals Wolf, Magnus Zapf, Konstantin Gupta, Deepak Kumar Hiller, Michael Árnason, Úlfur Janke, Axel 2023 https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/f280b9a9-a231-4c84-88a9-93178611e7f1 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-023-01579-1 eng eng BioMed Central (BMC) https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/f280b9a9-a231-4c84-88a9-93178611e7f1 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12915-023-01579-1 scopus:85152276574 pmid:37041515 BMC Biology; 21(1), no 79 (2023) ISSN: 1741-7007 Evolutionary Biology Cancer resistance Caperea marginata Peto’s paradox Phylogenomics Positive selection Pygmy right whale Rorquals Whole-genome sequencing contributiontojournal/article info:eu-repo/semantics/article text 2023 ftulundlup https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-023-01579-1 2024-04-23T23:49:15Z Background: Baleen whales are a clade of gigantic and highly specialized marine mammals. Their genomes have been used to investigate their complex evolutionary history and to decipher the molecular mechanisms that allowed them to reach these dimensions. However, many unanswered questions remain, especially about the early radiation of rorquals and how cancer resistance interplays with their huge number of cells. The pygmy right whale is the smallest and most elusive among the baleen whales. It reaches only a fraction of the body length compared to its relatives and it is the only living member of an otherwise extinct family. This placement makes the pygmy right whale genome an interesting target to update the complex phylogenetic past of baleen whales, because it splits up an otherwise long branch that leads to the radiation of rorquals. Apart from that, genomic data of this species might help to investigate cancer resistance in large whales, since these mechanisms are not as important for the pygmy right whale as in other giant rorquals and right whales. Results: Here, we present a first de novo genome of the species and test its potential in phylogenomics and cancer research. To do so, we constructed a multi-species coalescent tree from fragments of a whole-genome alignment and quantified the amount of introgression in the early evolution of rorquals. Furthermore, a genome-wide comparison of selection rates between large and small-bodied baleen whales revealed a small set of conserved candidate genes with potential connections to cancer resistance. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the evolution of rorquals is best described as a hard polytomy with a rapid radiation and high levels of introgression. The lack of shared positive selected genes between different large-bodied whale species supports a previously proposed convergent evolution of gigantism and hence cancer resistance in baleen whales. Article in Journal/Newspaper baleen whales Lund University Publications (LUP) BMC Biology 21 1 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Lund University Publications (LUP) |
op_collection_id |
ftulundlup |
language |
English |
topic |
Evolutionary Biology Cancer resistance Caperea marginata Peto’s paradox Phylogenomics Positive selection Pygmy right whale Rorquals Whole-genome sequencing |
spellingShingle |
Evolutionary Biology Cancer resistance Caperea marginata Peto’s paradox Phylogenomics Positive selection Pygmy right whale Rorquals Whole-genome sequencing Wolf, Magnus Zapf, Konstantin Gupta, Deepak Kumar Hiller, Michael Árnason, Úlfur Janke, Axel The genome of the pygmy right whale illuminates the evolution of rorquals |
topic_facet |
Evolutionary Biology Cancer resistance Caperea marginata Peto’s paradox Phylogenomics Positive selection Pygmy right whale Rorquals Whole-genome sequencing |
description |
Background: Baleen whales are a clade of gigantic and highly specialized marine mammals. Their genomes have been used to investigate their complex evolutionary history and to decipher the molecular mechanisms that allowed them to reach these dimensions. However, many unanswered questions remain, especially about the early radiation of rorquals and how cancer resistance interplays with their huge number of cells. The pygmy right whale is the smallest and most elusive among the baleen whales. It reaches only a fraction of the body length compared to its relatives and it is the only living member of an otherwise extinct family. This placement makes the pygmy right whale genome an interesting target to update the complex phylogenetic past of baleen whales, because it splits up an otherwise long branch that leads to the radiation of rorquals. Apart from that, genomic data of this species might help to investigate cancer resistance in large whales, since these mechanisms are not as important for the pygmy right whale as in other giant rorquals and right whales. Results: Here, we present a first de novo genome of the species and test its potential in phylogenomics and cancer research. To do so, we constructed a multi-species coalescent tree from fragments of a whole-genome alignment and quantified the amount of introgression in the early evolution of rorquals. Furthermore, a genome-wide comparison of selection rates between large and small-bodied baleen whales revealed a small set of conserved candidate genes with potential connections to cancer resistance. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the evolution of rorquals is best described as a hard polytomy with a rapid radiation and high levels of introgression. The lack of shared positive selected genes between different large-bodied whale species supports a previously proposed convergent evolution of gigantism and hence cancer resistance in baleen whales. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Wolf, Magnus Zapf, Konstantin Gupta, Deepak Kumar Hiller, Michael Árnason, Úlfur Janke, Axel |
author_facet |
Wolf, Magnus Zapf, Konstantin Gupta, Deepak Kumar Hiller, Michael Árnason, Úlfur Janke, Axel |
author_sort |
Wolf, Magnus |
title |
The genome of the pygmy right whale illuminates the evolution of rorquals |
title_short |
The genome of the pygmy right whale illuminates the evolution of rorquals |
title_full |
The genome of the pygmy right whale illuminates the evolution of rorquals |
title_fullStr |
The genome of the pygmy right whale illuminates the evolution of rorquals |
title_full_unstemmed |
The genome of the pygmy right whale illuminates the evolution of rorquals |
title_sort |
genome of the pygmy right whale illuminates the evolution of rorquals |
publisher |
BioMed Central (BMC) |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/f280b9a9-a231-4c84-88a9-93178611e7f1 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-023-01579-1 |
genre |
baleen whales |
genre_facet |
baleen whales |
op_source |
BMC Biology; 21(1), no 79 (2023) ISSN: 1741-7007 |
op_relation |
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/f280b9a9-a231-4c84-88a9-93178611e7f1 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12915-023-01579-1 scopus:85152276574 pmid:37041515 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-023-01579-1 |
container_title |
BMC Biology |
container_volume |
21 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1799477414651232256 |