TY - JOUR
T1 - Elephantid Genomes Reveal the Molecular Bases of Woolly Mammoth Adaptations to the Arctic
AU - Lynch, Vincent J.
AU - Bedoya-Reina, Oscar C.
AU - Ratan, Aakrosh
AU - Sulak, Michael
AU - Drautz-Moses, Daniela I.
AU - Perry, George H.
AU - Miller, Webb
AU - Schuster, Stephan C.
N1 - Funding Information:
Sequencing was supported by National Science Foundation award EAR-0921958 to S.C.S. We thank O. Ryder and S. Santosh for providing Asian elephant DNA samples and M. DeGiorgio for insights about woolly mammoth SNVs. We also thank S.L. Kosakovsky Pond for assistance in interpreting the TRPV3 selection tests results.
PY - 2015/7/14
Y1 - 2015/7/14
N2 - Woolly mammoths and living elephants are characterized by major phenotypic differences that have allowed them to live in very different environments. To identify the genetic changes that underlie the suite of woolly mammoth adaptations to extreme cold, we sequenced the nuclear genome from three Asian elephants and two woolly mammoths, and we identified and functionally annotated genetic changes unique to woolly mammoths. We found that genes with mammoth-specific amino acid changes are enriched in functions related to circadian biology, skin and hair development and physiology, lipid metabolism, adipose development and physiology, and temperature sensation. Finally, we resurrected and functionally tested the mammoth and ancestral elephant TRPV3 gene, which encodes a temperature-sensitive transient receptor potential (thermoTRP) channel involved in thermal sensation and hair growth, and we show that a single mammoth-specific amino acid substitution in an otherwise highly conserved region of the TRPV3 channel strongly affects its temperature sensitivity.
AB - Woolly mammoths and living elephants are characterized by major phenotypic differences that have allowed them to live in very different environments. To identify the genetic changes that underlie the suite of woolly mammoth adaptations to extreme cold, we sequenced the nuclear genome from three Asian elephants and two woolly mammoths, and we identified and functionally annotated genetic changes unique to woolly mammoths. We found that genes with mammoth-specific amino acid changes are enriched in functions related to circadian biology, skin and hair development and physiology, lipid metabolism, adipose development and physiology, and temperature sensation. Finally, we resurrected and functionally tested the mammoth and ancestral elephant TRPV3 gene, which encodes a temperature-sensitive transient receptor potential (thermoTRP) channel involved in thermal sensation and hair growth, and we show that a single mammoth-specific amino acid substitution in an otherwise highly conserved region of the TRPV3 channel strongly affects its temperature sensitivity.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.celrep.2015.06.027
DO - 10.1016/j.celrep.2015.06.027
M3 - Article
C2 - 26146078
AN - SCOPUS:84937519443
VL - 12
SP - 217
EP - 228
JO - Cell Reports
JF - Cell Reports
SN - 2211-1247
IS - 2
ER -