The Lungfish Transcriptome: A Glimpse into Molecular Evolution Events at the Transition from Water to Land.

ABSTRACT: Lungfish and coelacanths are the only living sarcopterygian fish. The phylogenetic relationship of lungfish to the last common ancestor of tetrapods and their close morphological similarity to their fossil ancestors make this species uniquely interesting. However their genome size, the largest among vertebrates, is hampering the generation of a whole genome sequence. To provide a partial solution to the problem, a high-coverage lungfish reference transcriptome was generated and assembled. The present findings indicate that lungfish, not coelacanths, are the closest relatives to land-adapted vertebrates. Whereas protein-coding genes evolve at a very slow rate, possibly reflecting a "living fossil" status, transposable elements appear to be active and show high diversity, suggesting a role f

SUBMITTER: Biscotti MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4764851 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature