Document Type
Article
Abstract
We have a limited understanding of the genetic and molecular basis of evolutionary changes in the size and proportion of limbs. We studied wing and pectoral skeleton reduction leading to flightlessness in the Galapagos cormorant (Phalacrocorax harrisi). We sequenced and de novo assembled the genomes of four cormorant species and applied a predictive and comparative genomics approach to find candidate variants that may have contributed to the evolution of flightlessness. These analyses and cross-species experiments in Caenorhabditis elegans and in chondrogenic cell lines implicated variants in genes necessary for transcriptional regulation and function of the primary cilium. Cilia are essential for Hedgehog signaling, and humans affected by skeletal ciliopathies suffer from premature bone growth arrest, mirroring skeletal features associated with loss of flight.
Publication Date
June 2017
Publication Title
Science
Volume
356
Issue
6341
First Page
821
Last Page
829
DOI
10.1126/science.aal3345
Recommended Citation
Parker, Patricia; Burga, Alejandro; Wang, Weiguang; Ben-David, Eyal; Wolf, Paul; Ramey, Andrew; Verdugo, Claudio; Lyons, Karen; and Kruglyak, Leonid, "A Genetic Signature of the Evolution of Loss of Flight in the Galapagos Cormorant" (2017). Biology Department Faculty Works. 90.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aal3345
Available at:
https://irl.umsl.edu/biology-faculty/90