Menu
April 21, 2020

Large-scale ruminant genome sequencing provides insights into their evolution and distinct traits.

Authors: Chen, Lei and Qiu, Qiang and Jiang, Yu and Wang, Kun and Lin, Zeshan and Li, Zhipeng and Bibi, Faysal and Yang, Yongzhi and Wang, Jinhuan and Nie, Wenhui and Su, Weiting and Liu, Guichun and Li, Qiye and Fu, Weiwei and Pan, Xiangyu and Liu, Chang and Yang, Jie and Zhang, Chenzhou and Yin, Yuan and Wang, Yu and Zhao, Yue and Zhang, Chen and Wang, Zhongkai and Qin, Yanli and Liu, Wei and Wang, Bao and Ren, Yandong and Zhang, Ru and Zeng, Yan and da Fonseca, Rute R and Wei, Bin and Li, Ran and Wan, Wenting and Zhao, Ruoping and Zhu, Wenbo and Wang, Yutao and Duan, Shengchang and Gao, Yun and Zhang, Yong E and Chen, Chunyan and Hvilsom, Christina and Epps, Clinton W and Chemnick, Leona G and Dong, Yang and Mirarab, Siavash and Siegismund, Hans Redlef and Ryder, Oliver A and Gilbert, M Thomas P and Lewin, Harris A and Zhang, Guojie and Heller, Rasmus and Wang, Wen

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. Copyright © 2019 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.

Journal: Science
DOI: 10.1126/science.aav6202
Year: 2019

Read publication

Talk with an expert

If you have a question, need to check the status of an order, or are interested in purchasing an instrument, we're here to help.