Browsing by Author "McCarthy, Fiona M"

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    Identification of dopamine receptors across the extant avian family tree and analysis with other clades uncovers a polyploid expansion among vertebrates.
    (Front Neurosci, 2015) Haug-Baltzell, Asher; Jarvis, Erich D; McCarthy, Fiona M; Lyons, Eric
    Dopamine is an important central nervous system transmitter that functions through two classes of receptors (D1 and D2) to influence a diverse range of biological processes in vertebrates. With roles in regulating neural activity, behavior, and gene expression, there has been great interest in understanding the function and evolution dopamine and its receptors. In this study, we use a combination of sequence analyses, microsynteny analyses, and phylogenetic relationships to identify and characterize both the D1 (DRD1A, DRD1B, DRD1C, and DRD1E) and D2 (DRD2, DRD3, and DRD4) dopamine receptor gene families in 43 recently sequenced bird genomes representing the major ordinal lineages across the avian family tree. We show that the common ancestor of all birds possessed at least seven D1 and D2 receptors, followed by subsequent independent losses in some lineages of modern birds. Through comparisons with other vertebrate and invertebrate species we show that two of the D1 receptors, DRD1A and DRD1B, and two of the D2 receptors, DRD2 and DRD3, originated from a whole genome duplication event early in the vertebrate lineage, providing the first conclusive evidence of the origin of these highly conserved receptors. Our findings provide insight into the evolutionary development of an important modulatory component of the central nervous system in vertebrates, and will help further unravel the complex evolutionary and functional relationships among dopamine receptors.
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    Sequencing three crocodilian genomes to illuminate the evolution of archosaurs and amniotes.
    (Genome Biol, 2012-01-31) St John, John A; Braun, Edward L; Isberg, Sally R; Miles, Lee G; Chong, Amanda Y; Gongora, Jaime; Dalzell, Pauline; Moran, Christopher; Bed'hom, Bertrand; Abzhanov, Arkhat; Burgess, Shane C; Cooksey, Amanda M; Castoe, Todd A; Crawford, Nicholas G; Densmore, Llewellyn D; Drew, Jennifer C; Edwards, Scott V; Faircloth, Brant C; Fujita, Matthew K; Greenwold, Matthew J; Hoffmann, Federico G; Howard, Jonathan M; Iguchi, Taisen; Janes, Daniel E; Khan, Shahid Yar; Kohno, Satomi; de Koning, Ap Jason; Lance, Stacey L; McCarthy, Fiona M; McCormack, John E; Merchant, Mark E; Peterson, Daniel G; Pollock, David D; Pourmand, Nader; Raney, Brian J; Roessler, Kyria A; Sanford, Jeremy R; Sawyer, Roger H; Schmidt, Carl J; Triplett, Eric W; Tuberville, Tracey D; Venegas-Anaya, Miryam; Howard, Jason T; Jarvis, Erich D; Guillette, Louis J; Glenn, Travis C; Green, Richard E; Ray, David A
    The International Crocodilian Genomes Working Group (ICGWG) will sequence and assemble the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis), saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) and Indian gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) genomes. The status of these projects and our planned analyses are described.
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    Three crocodilian genomes reveal ancestral patterns of evolution among archosaurs.
    (Science, 2014-12-12) Green, Richard E; Braun, Edward L; Armstrong, Joel; Earl, Dent; Nguyen, Ngan; Hickey, Glenn; Vandewege, Michael W; St John, John A; Capella-Gutiérrez, Salvador; Castoe, Todd A; Kern, Colin; Fujita, Matthew K; Opazo, Juan C; Jurka, Jerzy; Kojima, Kenji K; Caballero, Juan; Hubley, Robert M; Smit, Arian F; Platt, Roy N; Lavoie, Christine A; Ramakodi, Meganathan P; Finger, John W; Suh, Alexander; Isberg, Sally R; Miles, Lee; Chong, Amanda Y; Jaratlerdsiri, Weerachai; Gongora, Jaime; Moran, Christopher; Iriarte, Andrés; McCormack, John; Burgess, Shane C; Edwards, Scott V; Lyons, Eric; Williams, Christina; Breen, Matthew; Howard, Jason T; Gresham, Cathy R; Peterson, Daniel G; Schmitz, Jürgen; Pollock, David D; Haussler, David; Triplett, Eric W; Zhang, Guojie; Irie, Naoki; Jarvis, Erich D; Brochu, Christopher A; Schmidt, Carl J; McCarthy, Fiona M; Faircloth, Brant C; Hoffmann, Federico G; Glenn, Travis C; Gabaldón, Toni; Paten, Benedict; Ray, David A
    To provide context for the diversification of archosaurs--the group that includes crocodilians, dinosaurs, and birds--we generated draft genomes of three crocodilians: Alligator mississippiensis (the American alligator), Crocodylus porosus (the saltwater crocodile), and Gavialis gangeticus (the Indian gharial). We observed an exceptionally slow rate of genome evolution within crocodilians at all levels, including nucleotide substitutions, indels, transposable element content and movement, gene family evolution, and chromosomal synteny. When placed within the context of related taxa including birds and turtles, this suggests that the common ancestor of all of these taxa also exhibited slow genome evolution and that the comparatively rapid evolution is derived in birds. The data also provided the opportunity to analyze heterozygosity in crocodilians, which indicates a likely reduction in population size for all three taxa through the Pleistocene. Finally, these data combined with newly published bird genomes allowed us to reconstruct the partial genome of the common ancestor of archosaurs, thereby providing a tool to investigate the genetic starting material of crocodilians, birds, and dinosaurs.