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No genome-wide protein sequence convergence for echolocation.

Zhengting Zou1, Jianzhi Zhang2

  • 1Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Molecular Biology and Evolution
|January 30, 2015
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Genomic analysis reveals that molecular convergence in echolocation is not stronger than in non-echolocating species. Previous evidence for adaptive convergence in echolocation has been invalidated.

Keywords:
batconvergent evolutiondolphinneutral evolution

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Molecular biology
  • Bioacoustics

Background:

  • Echolocation, the ability to navigate using sound, evolved independently in toothed whales and bats.
  • The molecular basis for this complex trait is not fully understood.
  • A prior study proposed widespread convergent amino acid substitutions in echolocators' proteins as evidence for adaptive convergence.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the genomic signatures of molecular convergence in echolocation.
  • To re-evaluate the evidence for adaptive convergence in the evolution of echolocation.

Main Methods:

  • Comparative genomic analysis of echolocating and non-echolocating mammalian lineages.
  • Reexamination of previous selection tests on hearing-related proteins.

Main Results:

  • Genomic signatures of molecular convergence between echolocating lineages were not significantly stronger than between echolocating and non-echolocating lineages.
  • This pattern held true for a set of 29 hearing-related proteins previously implicated in convergence.
  • Flaws in prior selection tests invalidated the evidence for adaptive convergence.

Conclusions:

  • The purported genomic signatures of convergence in echolocation likely represent background levels of sequence convergence.
  • The study challenges the hypothesis that widespread convergent amino acid substitutions drove the independent evolution of echolocation.