Return to the Sea, Get Huge, Beat Cancer: An Analysis of Cetacean Genomes Including an Assembly for the Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae).

ABSTRACT: Cetaceans are a clade of highly specialized aquatic mammals that include the largest animals that have ever lived. The largest whales can have ∼1,000× more cells than a human, with long lifespans, leaving them theoretically susceptible to cancer. However, large-bodied and long-lived animals do not suffer higher risks of cancer mortality than humans-an observation known as Peto's Paradox. To investigate the genomic bases of gigantism and other cetacean adaptations, we generated a de novo genome assembly for the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) and incorporated the genomes of ten cetacean species in a comparative analysis. We found further evidence that rorquals (family Balaenopteridae) radiated during the Miocene or earlier, and inferred that perturbations in abundance and/or the int

SUBMITTER: Tollis M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6657726 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature