近日，中科院昆明动物所Guojie Zhang、Wen Wang等研究小组的大规模反刍动物基因组测序，为研究反刍动物的进化和特性提供了新的视角。 这一研究成果发表在2019年6月21日出版的国际学术期刊《科学》上。
为了更好地理解反刍动物的进化，研究团队生成和分析了44个反刍动物物种的从头组装的基因组，代表了所有六个反刍类家族。研究团队使用这些基因组构建了一个经时间校准的系统发育树，来解决拓扑结构上的争议和克服不完整谱系分类带来的挑战。种群动态分析表明，反刍动物种群下降开始于10万到5万年前，这与人类种群的增长同时发生。该研究团队还揭示了可能有助于反刍动物消化系统，头颅附属物，免疫系统，新陈代谢，体型，擅长奔跑特性和牙列的演变进化的基因和调节元件。
据介绍，反刍动物是最成功的哺乳动物谱系之一，表现出形态和栖息地多样性，并包含几种主要的牲畜物种。
附：英文原文
Title: Large-scale ruminant genome sequencing provides insights into their evolution and distinct traits
Author: Lei Chen, Qiang Qiu, Yu Jiang, Kun Wang, Zeshan Lin, Zhipeng Li, Faysal Bibi, Yongzhi Yang, Jinhuan Wang, Wenhui Nie, Weiting Su, Guichun Liu, Qiye Li, Weiwei Fu, Xiangyu Pan, Chang Liu, Jie Yang, Chenzhou Zhang, Yuan Yin, Yu Wang, Yue Zhao, Chen Zhang, Zhongkai Wang, Yanli Qin, Wei Liu, Bao Wang, Yandong Ren, Ru Zhang, Yan Zeng, Rute R. da Fonseca, Bin Wei, Ran Li, Wenting Wan, Ruoping Zhao, Wenbo Zhu, Yutao Wang, Shengchang Duan, Yun Gao, Yong E. Zhang, Chunyan Chen, Christina Hvilsom, Clinton W. Epps, Leona G. Chemnick, Yang Dong, Siavash Mirarab, Hans Redlef Siegismund, Oliver A. Ryder, M. Thomas P. Gilbert, Harris A. Lewin, Guojie Zhang，Rasmus Heller, Wen Wang
Issue&Volume:Vol 364, Issue 6446,21 June 2019
Abstract: The ruminants are one of the most successful mammalian lineages, exhibiting morphological and habitat diversity and containing several key livestock species. To better understand their evolution, we generated and analyzed de novo assembled genomes of 44 ruminant species, representing all six Ruminantia families. We used these genomes to create a time-calibrated phylogeny to resolve topological controversies, overcoming the challenges of incomplete lineage sorting. Population dynamic analyses show that population declines commenced between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago, which is concomitant with expansion in human populations. We also reveal genes and regulatory elements that possibly contribute to the evolution of the digestive system, cranial appendages, immune system, metabolism, body size, cursorial locomotion, and dentition of the ruminants.
DOI: 10.1126/science.aav6202
Source: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/364/6446/eaav6202