Giant lungfish genome elucidates the conquest of land by vertebrates

Axel Meyer (), Siegfried Schloissnig, Paolo Franchini, Kang Du, Joost M. Woltering, Iker Irisarri, Wai Yee Wong, Sergej Nowoshilow, Susanne Kneitz, Akane Kawaguchi, Andrej Fabrizius, Peiwen Xiong, Corentin Dechaud, Herman P. Spaink, Jean-Nicolas Volff, Oleg Simakov (), Thorsten Burmester (), Elly M. Tanaka () and Manfred Schartl ()
Additional contact information
Axel Meyer: University of Konstanz
Siegfried Schloissnig: Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP)
Paolo Franchini: University of Konstanz
Kang Du: Biocenter, University of Würzburg
Joost M. Woltering: University of Konstanz
Iker Irisarri: Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN-CSIC)
Wai Yee Wong: University of Vienna
Sergej Nowoshilow: Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP)
Susanne Kneitz: Biocenter, University of Würzburg
Akane Kawaguchi: Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP)
Andrej Fabrizius: Universität Hamburg
Peiwen Xiong: University of Konstanz
Corentin Dechaud: Université Claude Bernard
Herman P. Spaink: Universiteit Leiden
Jean-Nicolas Volff: Université Claude Bernard
Oleg Simakov: University of Vienna
Thorsten Burmester: Universität Hamburg
Elly M. Tanaka: Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP)
Manfred Schartl: Biocenter, University of Würzburg

Nature, 2021, vol. 590, issue 7845, 284-289

Abstract: Abstract Lungfishes belong to lobe-fined fish (Sarcopterygii) that, in the Devonian period, ‘conquered’ the land and ultimately gave rise to all land vertebrates, including humans1–3. Here we determine the chromosome-quality genome of the Australian lungfish (Neoceratodus forsteri), which is known to have the largest genome of any animal. The vast size of this genome, which is about 14× larger than that of humans, is attributable mostly to huge intergenic regions and introns with high repeat content (around 90%), the components of which resemble those of tetrapods (comprising mainly long interspersed nuclear elements) more than they do those of ray-finned fish. The lungfish genome continues to expand independently (its transposable elements are still active), through mechanisms different to those of the enormous genomes of salamanders. The 17 fully assembled lungfish macrochromosomes maintain synteny to other vertebrate chromosomes, and all microchromosomes maintain conserved ancient homology with the ancestral vertebrate karyotype. Our phylogenomic analyses confirm previous reports that lungfish occupy a key evolutionary position as the closest living relatives to tetrapods4,5, underscoring the importance of lungfish for understanding innovations associated with terrestrialization. Lungfish preadaptations to living on land include the gain of limb-like expression in developmental genes such as hoxc13 and sall1 in their lobed fins. Increased rates of evolution and the duplication of genes associated with obligate air-breathing, such as lung surfactants and the expansion of odorant receptor gene families (which encode proteins involved in detecting airborne odours), contribute to the tetrapod-like biology of lungfishes. These findings advance our understanding of this major transition during vertebrate evolution.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03198-8 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:590:y:2021:i:7845:d:10.1038_s41586-021-03198-8

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03198-8

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().