PUBLICATION

The seahorse genome and the evolution of its specialized morphology

Authors
Lin, Q., Fan, S., Zhang, Y., Xu, M., Zhang, H., Yang, Y., Lee, A.P., Woltering, J.M., Ravi, V., Gunter, H.M., Luo, W., Gao, Z., Lim, Z.W., Qin, G., Schneider, R.F., Wang, X., Xiong, P., Li, G., Wang, K., Min, J., Zhang, C., Qiu, Y., Bai, J., He, W., Bian, C., Zhang, X., Shan, D., Qu, H., Sun, Y., Gao, Q., Huang, L., Shi, Q., Meyer, A., Venkatesh, B.
ID
ZDB-PUB-161216-11
Date
2016
Source
Nature   540: 395-399 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Venkatesh, Byrappa, Wang, Xin
Keywords
Genome, Evolutionary developmental biology
MeSH Terms
  • Animal Fins/anatomy & histology
  • Animal Fins/metabolism
  • Animals
  • Biological Evolution*
  • Conserved Sequence/genetics
  • Fish Proteins/deficiency
  • Fish Proteins/genetics*
  • Gene Deletion
  • Genome/genetics*
  • Genomics
  • Hindlimb/anatomy & histology
  • Hindlimb/metabolism
  • Male
  • Molecular Sequence Annotation
  • Multigene Family/genetics
  • Mutation Rate
  • Phylogeny
  • Reproduction/physiology
  • Smegmamorpha/anatomy & histology*
  • Smegmamorpha/genetics*
  • T-Box Domain Proteins/deficiency
  • T-Box Domain Proteins/genetics
  • Time Factors
  • Zebrafish Proteins/deficiency
  • Zebrafish Proteins/genetics
PubMed
27974754 Full text @ Nature
Abstract
Seahorses have a specialized morphology that includes a toothless tubular mouth, a body covered with bony plates, a male brood pouch, and the absence of caudal and pelvic fins. Here we report the sequencing and de novo assembly of the genome of the tiger tail seahorse, Hippocampus comes. Comparative genomic analysis identifies higher protein and nucleotide evolutionary rates in H. comes compared with other teleost fish genomes. We identified an astacin metalloprotease gene family that has undergone expansion and is highly expressed in the male brood pouch. We also find that the H. comes genome lacks enamel matrix protein-coding proline/glutamine-rich secretory calcium-binding phosphoprotein genes, which might have led to the loss of mineralized teeth. tbx4, a regulator of hindlimb development, is also not found in H. comes genome. Knockout of tbx4 in zebrafish showed a 'pelvic fin-loss' phenotype similar to that of seahorses.
Genes / Markers
Figures
Show all Figures
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping