Disentangling the relationship of the Australian marsupial orders using retrotransposon and evolutionary network analyses.

ABSTRACT: The ancestors to the Australian marsupials entered Australia around 60 (54-72) Ma from Antarctica, and radiated into the four living orders Peramelemorphia, Dasyuromorphia, Diprotodontia, and Notoryctemorphia. The relationship between the four Australian marsupial orders has been a long-standing question, because different phylogenetic studies have not been able to consistently reconstruct the same topology. Initial in silico analysis of the Tasmanian devil genome and experimental screening in the seven marsupial orders revealed 20 informative transposable element insertions for resolving the inter- and intraordinal relationships of Australian and South American orders. However, the retrotransposon insertions support three conflicting topologies regarding Peramelemorphia, Dasyuromorphia, a

SUBMITTER: Gallus S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4419798 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature