近日,，中科院昆明動物研究所張亞平院士課題組從全基因組的角度,，揭示了蝙蝠、海豚在飛行和游泳的新運動能力起源過程中的分子機制,。相關研究成果日前發(fā)表于《科學公共圖書館—綜合》,，并受到審稿人的好評。
據悉,，哺乳動物大多在陸地上運動,，如奔跑或行走，但蝙蝠和海豚是例外,。它們分別進化出了新的運動方式,，蝙蝠進化出飛行能力，海豚進化出了水里游泳能力,。由于運動方式的變化涉及到骨骼,、肌肉、能量代謝等一系列非常復雜的變化,，因此,，科研人員致力找出海豚和蝙蝠進化出新的運動方式的分子機制。
科研人員對2種蝙蝠和1種海豚的基因組進行了全基因組掃描分析,，發(fā)現蝙蝠和海豚的能量代謝相關基因比其他陸生動物受到更高比例的正選擇,。同時，它們趨同進化的基因也富集于能量代謝,、肌肉,、心臟等相關基因。(生物谷Bioon.com)
10.1371/journal.pone.0046455
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Genome-Wide Scan for Bats and Dolphin to Detect Their Genetic Basis for New Locomotive Styles
Yong-Yi Shen1#*, Wei-Ping Zhou1,2#, Tai-Cheng Zhou3, Yan-Ni Zeng1,4, Gui-Mei Li1, David M. Irwin1,5,6, Ya-Ping Zhang1,4*
For most mammals, running is their major locomotive style, however, cetaceans and bats are two mammalian groups that have independently developed new locomotive styles (swimming and flying) from their terrestrial ancestors. In this study, we used a genome-wide comparative analysis in an attempt to identify the selective imprint of the development of new locomotive styles by cetaceans and bats to adapt to their new ecological niches. We found that an elevated proportion of mitochondrion-associated genes show evidence of adaptive evolution in cetaceans and on the common ancestral lineage leading to bats, compared to other terrestrial mammals. This result is consistent with the fact that during the independent developments of swimming and flying in these two groups, the changes of energy metabolism ratios would be among the most important factors to overcome elevated energy demands. Furthermore, genes that show evidence of sequence convergence or parallel evolution in these two lineages were overrepresented in the categories of energy metabolism, muscle contraction, heart, and glucose metabolism, genes that perform functions which are essential for locomotion. In conclusion, our analyses showed that on the dolphin and bat lineages, genes associated with locomotion not only both show a greater propensity to adaptively evolve, but also show evidence of sequence convergence, which likely reflects a response to a common requirement during their development of these two drastic locomotive styles.
