Qu Meng, Liu Yali, Zhang Yanhong, Wan Shiming, Ravi Vydianathan, Qin Geng, Jiang Han, Wang Xin, Zhang Huixian, Zhang Bo, Gao Zexia, Huysseune Ann, Zhang Zhixin, Zhang Hao, Chen Zelin, Yu Haiyan, Wu Yongli, Tang Lu, Li Chunyan, Zhong Jia, Ma Liming, Wang Fengling, Zheng Hongkun, Yin Jianping, Witten Paul Eckhard, Meyer Axel, Venkatesh Byrappa, Lin Qiang
CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-Resources and Ecology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 510301 Guangzhou, China.
Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), 511458 Guangzhou, China.
Sci Adv. 2021 Aug 18;7(34). doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abg5196. Print 2021 Aug.
The iconic phenotype of seadragons includes leaf-like appendages, a toothless tubular mouth, and male pregnancy involving incubation of fertilized eggs on an open "brood patch." We de novo-sequenced male and female genomes of the common seadragon () and its closely related species, the alligator pipefish (). Transcription profiles from an evolutionary novelty, the leaf-like appendages, show that a set of genes typically involved in fin development have been co-opted as well as an enrichment of transcripts for potential tissue repair and immune defense genes. The zebrafish mutants for , which is lost in all syngnathids, were found to lack or have deformed pharyngeal teeth, supporting the hypothesis that the loss of has contributed to the loss of teeth in syngnathids. A putative sex-determining locus encoding a male-specific gene shared by common seadragon and alligator pipefish was identified.
叶形海龙的标志性表型包括叶状附属物、无牙的管状嘴以及雄性怀孕，即受精卵在开放的“育儿袋”中孵化。我们对普通叶形海龙及其近缘物种——短吻海象鼻鱼的雄性和雌性基因组进行了从头测序。来自进化新奇特征叶状附属物的转录谱表明，一组通常参与鳍发育的基因已被征用，同时潜在的组织修复和免疫防御基因的转录本也有所富集。在所有海龙科鱼类中缺失的基因的斑马鱼突变体被发现缺少或有变形的咽齿，这支持了基因的缺失导致海龙科鱼类牙齿缺失的假说。我们鉴定出一个推定的性别决定位点，该位点编码普通叶形海龙和短吻海象鼻鱼共有的雄性特异性基因。
