Two Antarctic penguin genomes reveal insights into their evolutionary history and molecular changes related to the Antarctic environment.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Penguins are flightless aquatic birds widely distributed in the Southern
Hemisphere. The distinctive morphological and physiological features of penguins allow
them to live an aquatic life, and some of them have successfully adapted to the hostile
environments in Antarctica. To study the phylogenetic and population history of penguins
and the molecular basis of their adaptations to Antarctica, we sequenced the genomes
of the two Antarctic dwelling penguin species, the Adélie penguin [Pygoscelis adeliae]
and emperor penguin [Aptenodytes forsteri]. RESULTS: Phylogenetic dating suggests
that early penguins arose ~60 million years ago, coinciding with a period of global
warming. Analysis of effective population sizes reveals that the two penguin species
experienced population expansions from ~1 million years ago to ~100 thousand years
ago, but responded differently to the climatic cooling of the last glacial period.
Comparative genomic analyses with other available avian genomes identified molecular
changes in genes related to epidermal structure, phototransduction, lipid metabolism,
and forelimb morphology. CONCLUSIONS: Our sequencing and initial analyses of the first
two penguin genomes provide insights into the timing of penguin origin, fluctuations
in effective population sizes of the two penguin species over the past 10 million
years, and the potential associations between these biological patterns and global
climate change. The molecular changes compared with other avian genomes reflect both
shared and diverse adaptations of the two penguin species to the Antarctic environment.
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/9320Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1186/2047-217X-3-27Publication Info
Li, Cai; Zhang, Yong; Li, Jianwen; Kong, Lesheng; Hu, Haofu; Pan, Hailin; ... Zhang,
Guojie (2014). Two Antarctic penguin genomes reveal insights into their evolutionary history and
molecular changes related to the Antarctic environment. Gigascience, 3(1). pp. 27. 10.1186/2047-217X-3-27. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/9320.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Erich David Jarvis
Adjunct Professor in the Deptartment of Neurobiology
Dr. Jarvis' laboratory studies the neurobiology of vocal communication. Emphasis is
placed on the molecular pathways involved in the perception and production of learned
vocalizations. They use an integrative approach that combines behavioral, anatomical,
electrophysiological and molecular biological techniques. The main animal model used
is songbirds, one of the few vertebrate groups that evolved the ability to learn vocalizations.
The generality of the discoveries is tested in other vocal lear

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