Hepcidin Gene Co-Option Balancing Paternal Immune Protection and Male Pregnancy.

ABSTRACT: Viviparity has originated independently more than 150 times in vertebrates, while the male pregnancy only emerged in Syngnathidae fishes, such as seahorses. The typical male pregnancy seahorses have closed sophisticated brood pouch that act as both uterus and placenta, representing an excellent model system for studying the evolutionary process of paternal immune protection. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the hampII gene family has multiple tandem duplicated genes and shows independent lineage-specific expansion in seahorses, and they had the highest ratio of nonsynonymous substitutions to synonymous substitutions (dN/dS) in the seahorse phylogenetic branch. The expression levels of hampIIs in the brood pouch placenta were significantly higher during pregnancy than non-pregnancy. Bot

SUBMITTER: Xiao W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9073008 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature