Temperature and Pressure Shaped the Evolution of Antifreeze Proteins in Polar and Deep Sea Zoarcoid Fishes.

ABSTRACT: Antifreeze proteins (AFPs) have enabled teleost fishes to repeatedly colonize polar seas. Four AFP types have convergently evolved in several fish lineages. AFPs inhibit ice crystal growth and lower tissue freezing point. In lineages with AFPs, species inhabiting colder environments may possess more AFP copies. Elucidating how differences in AFP copy number evolve is challenging due to the genes' tandem array structure and consequently poor resolution of these repetitive regions. Here, we explore the evolution of type III AFPs (AFP III) in the globally distributed suborder Zoarcoidei, leveraging six new long-read genome assemblies. Zoarcoidei has fewer genomic resources relative to other polar fish clades while it is one of the few groups of fishes adapted to both the Arctic and Southern O

SUBMITTER: Bogan SN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12509209 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature