Widespread cis-regulatory convergence between the extinct Tasmanian tiger and gray wolf.

ABSTRACT: The extinct marsupial Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, and the eutherian gray wolf are among the most widely recognized examples of convergent evolution in mammals. Despite being distantly related, these large predators independently evolved extremely similar craniofacial morphologies, and evidence suggests that they filled similar ecological niches. Previous analyses revealed little evidence of adaptive convergence between their protein-coding genes. Thus, the genetic basis of their convergence is still unclear. Here, we identified candidate craniofacial cis-regulatory elements across vertebrates and compared their evolutionary rates in the thylacine and wolf, revealing abundant signatures of convergent positive selection. Craniofacial thylacine-wolf accelerated regions were enriched

SUBMITTER: Feigin CY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6771401 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature