TY  - JOUR
A1  - Choo, Siew Woh
A1  - Rayko, Mike
A1  - Tan, Tze King
A1  - Hari, Ranjeev
A1  - Komissarov, Aleksey
A1  - Wee, Wei Yee
A1  - Yurchenko, Andrey A.
A1  - Kliver, Sergey
A1  - Tamazian, Gaik
A1  - Antunes, Agostinho
A1  - Wilson, Richard K.
A1  - Warren, Wesley C.
A1  - Koepfli, Klaus-Peter
A1  - Minx, Patrick
A1  - Krasheninnikova, Ksenia
A1  - Kotze, Antoinette
A1  - Dalton, Desire L.
A1  - Vermaak, Elaine
A1  - Paterson, Ian C.
A1  - Dobrynin, Pavel
A1  - Sitam, Frankie Thomas
A1  - Rovie-Ryan, Jeffrine J.
A1  - Johnson, Warren E.
A1  - Yusoff, Aini Mohamed
A1  - Luo, Shu-Jin
A1  - Karuppannan, Kayal Vizi
A1  - Fang, Gang
A1  - Zheng, Deyou
A1  - Gerstein, Mark B.
A1  - Lipovich, Leonard
A1  - O'Brien, Stephen J.
A1  - Wong, Guat Jah
T1  - Pangolin genomes and the evolution of mammalian scales and immunity
Y1  - 2016/10/01 
JF  - Genome Research 
JO  - Genome Research 
SP  - 1312 
EP  - 1322 
DO  - 10.1101/gr.203521.115 
VL  - 26 
IS  - 10 
UR  - http://genome.cshlp.org/content/26/10/1312.abstract 
N2  - 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. 
ER  -