Imperial College London
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ProfessorVincentSavolainen

Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Life Sciences (Silwood Park)

Professor of Organismic Biology
 
 
 
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Contact

 

v.savolainen CV

 
 
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Assistant

 

Ms Elisabeth Ahlstrom +44 (0)20 7594 2207

 
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Location

 

N.1-17MunroSilwood Park

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Ciezarek:2016:gbe/evw211,
author = {Ciezarek, AG and Dunning, LT and Jones, CS and Noble, LR and Humble, E and Stefanni, S and Savolainen, V},
doi = {gbe/evw211},
journal = {Genome Biology and Evolution},
pages = {3011--3021},
title = {Substitutions in the glycogenin-1 gene are associated with the evolution of endothermy in sharks and tunas},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evw211},
volume = {8},
year = {2016}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Despite 400-450 million years of independent evolution, a strong phenotypic convergence has occurred between two groups of fish: tunas and lamnid sharks. This convergence is characterised by centralisation of red muscle, a distinctive swimming style (stiffened body powered through tail movements) and elevated body temperature (endothermy). Furthermore, both groups demonstrate elevated white muscle metabolic capacities. All these traits are unusual in fish and more likely evolved to support their fast-swimming, pelagic, predatory behaviour. Here we tested the hypothesis that their convergent evolution was driven by selection on a set of metabolic genes. We sequenced white muscle transcriptomes of six tuna, one mackerel and three shark species, and supplemented this data set with previously published RNA-seq data. Using 26 species in total, (including 7,032 tuna genes plus 1,719 shark genes), we constructed phylogenetic trees and carried out maximum-likelihood analyses of gene selection. We inferred several genes relating to metabolism to be under selection. We also found that the same one gene, glycogenin-1, evolved under positive selection independently in tunas and lamnid sharks, providing evidence of convergent selective pressures at gene level possibly underlying shared physiology.
AU  - Ciezarek,AG
AU  - Dunning,LT
AU  - Jones,CS
AU  - Noble,LR
AU  - Humble,E
AU  - Stefanni,S
AU  - Savolainen,V
DO  - gbe/evw211
EP  - 3021
PY  - 2016///
SN  - 1759-6653
SP  - 3011
TI  - Substitutions in the glycogenin-1 gene are associated with the evolution of endothermy in sharks and tunas
T2  - Genome Biology and Evolution
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evw211
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/39561
VL  - 8
ER  -
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