The motilin gene evolved a new function in kangaroo rats and kangaroo mice (Dipodomyinae)

The motilin receptor gene was lost in the ancestral lineage of rodents. Subsequently, the gene encoding its ligand, motilin, has experienced different evolutionary fates. Previous genomic analyses had shown that the motilin gene (MLN) became a pseudogene independently in the lineages leading to the guinea pig and the common ancestor of the mouse and rat, yet an intact, and thus potentially functional, open reading frame for the MLN was preserved in the Dipodomys ordii genome. As only a single MLN haplotype from D. ordii was available, and this sequence is from a low coverage draft genome, it is possible that the intact MLN found in the draft kangaroo rat genome is an artifact, or represents an intermediate in the process of becoming a pseudogene. In order to establish whether an intact MLN is retained in kangaroo rats despite the loss of its specific receptor, and to investigate the evolutionary mechanisms underlying the retention of this gene sequence, we isolated MLN sequences from species that represent the diversity of the Dipodomyinae [the monophyletic Dipodomyinae subfamily consists of two genera: Dipodomys (kangaroo rats) and Microdipodops (kangaroo mice)]. The results demonstrate that the MLN sequence is well conserved in Dipodomyinae, and it codes for a predicted motilin peptide sequence possessing a conserved N-terminal pharmacophore and the potential to be processed and secreted as a hormone. The observations that the MLN evolved as a functional gene during the radiation of the Dipodomyinae, species that have lost their original motilin receptor, suggest that the MLN has undergone a lineage-specific physiological adaptation to a new function.