@article{Choo01102016,
author = {Choo, Siew Woh and Rayko, Mike and Tan, Tze King and Hari, Ranjeev and Komissarov, Aleksey and Wee, Wei Yee and Yurchenko, Andrey A. and Kliver, Sergey and Tamazian, Gaik and Antunes, Agostinho and Wilson, Richard K. and Warren, Wesley C. and Koepfli, Klaus-Peter and Minx, Patrick and Krasheninnikova, Ksenia and Kotze, Antoinette and Dalton, Desire L. and Vermaak, Elaine and Paterson, Ian C. and Dobrynin, Pavel and Sitam, Frankie Thomas and Rovie-Ryan, Jeffrine J. and Johnson, Warren E. and Yusoff, Aini Mohamed and Luo, Shu-Jin and Karuppannan, Kayal Vizi and Fang, Gang and Zheng, Deyou and Gerstein, Mark B. and Lipovich, Leonard and O'Brien, Stephen J. and Wong, Guat Jah}, 
title = {Pangolin genomes and the evolution of mammalian scales and immunity},
volume = {26}, 
number = {10}, 
pages = {1312-1322}, 
year = {2016}, 
doi = {10.1101/gr.203521.115}, 
abstract ={Pangolins, unique mammals with scales over most of their body, no teeth, poor vision, and an acute olfactory system, comprise the only placental order (Pholidota) without a whole-genome map. To investigate pangolin biology and evolution, we developed genome assemblies of the Malayan (Manis javanica) and Chinese (M. pentadactyla) pangolins. Strikingly, we found that interferon epsilon (IFNE), exclusively expressed in epithelial cells and important in skin and mucosal immunity, is pseudogenized in all African and Asian pangolin species that we examined, perhaps impacting resistance to infection. We propose that scale development was an innovation that provided protection against injuries or stress and reduced pangolin vulnerability to infection. Further evidence of specialized adaptations was evident from positively selected genes involving immunity-related pathways, inflammation, energy storage and metabolism, muscular and nervous systems, and scale/hair development. Olfactory receptor gene families are significantly expanded in pangolins, reflecting their well-developed olfaction system. This study provides insights into mammalian adaptation and functional diversification, new research tools and questions, and perhaps a new natural IFNE-deficient animal model for studying mammalian immunity.}, 
URL = {http://genome.cshlp.org/content/26/10/1312.abstract}, 
eprint = {http://genome.cshlp.org/content/26/10/1312.full.pdf+html}, 
journal = {Genome Research} 
}