Teeling Emma C
UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.
Trends Ecol Evol. 2009 Jul;24(7):351-4. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2009.02.012. Epub 2009 May 29.
The evolutionary history of laryngeal echolocation is controversial, and little is known about the molecular mechanisms that underlie this sense. A recent paper by Li and colleagues is one of the first studies to identify and sequence a gene involved in echolocation in bats -Prestin, the so-called mammalian hearing gene. Phylogenetic analyses show evidence for positive selection acting on this gene in the echolocating lineages and support the convergent evolution of laryngeal echolocation in bats.
喉部回声定位的进化史存在争议，对于这种感官背后的分子机制我们知之甚少。李及其同事最近发表的一篇论文是最早鉴定并测序蝙蝠中与回声定位相关基因的研究之一——Prestin，即所谓的哺乳动物听觉基因。系统发育分析表明，有证据显示正向选择作用于回声定位谱系中的该基因，并支持蝙蝠喉部回声定位的趋同进化。
