The genome of the largest bony fish, ocean sunfish (Mola mola), provides insights into its fast growth rate.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The ocean sunfish (Mola mola), which can grow up to a length of 2.7 m and weigh 2.3 tons, is the world's largest bony fish. It has an extremely fast growth rate and its endoskeleton is mainly composed of cartilage. Another unique feature of the sunfish is its lack of a caudal fin, which is replaced by a broad and stiff lobe that results in the characteristic truncated appearance of the fish.

Results

To gain insights into the genomic basis of these phenotypic traits, we sequenced the sunfish genome and performed a comparative analysis with other teleost genomes. Several sunfish genes involved in the growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor 1 (GH/IGF1) axis signalling pathway were found to be under positive selection or accelerated evolution, which might explai

SUBMITTER: Pan H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5016917 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature