How to Make a Dolphin: Molecular Signature of Positive Selection in Cetacean Genome.

ABSTRACT: Cetaceans are unique in being the only mammals completely adapted to an aquatic environment. This adaptation has required complex changes and sometimes a complete restructuring of physiology, behavior and morphology. Identifying genes that have been subjected to selection pressure during cetacean evolution would greatly enhance our knowledge of the ways in which genetic variation in this mammalian order has been shaped by natural selection. Here, we performed a genome-wide scan for positive selection in the dolphin lineage. We employed models of codon substitution that account for variation of selective pressure over branches on the tree and across sites in a sequence. We analyzed 7,859 nuclear-coding ortholog genes and using a series of likelihood ratio tests (LRTs), we identified 376 gen

SUBMITTER: Nery MF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3686761 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature