Frankenberg Stephen R, Lucas Sarah, Feigin Charles Y, Doronina Liliya, Steffen Raphael, Hartley Gabrielle, Grady Patrick, Menzies Brandon R, De Paoli-Iseppi Ricardo, Donnellan Stephen, Klein Mitzi, Newton Axel, Black Jay R, Clark Michael, Cooper Steven, O'Neill Rachel, Clark Nathan, Schmitz Jürgen, Pask Andrew J
School of BioSciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia.
Department of Human Genetics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
Sci Adv. 2025 Jan 3;11(1):eado4140. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.ado4140. Epub 2025 Jan 1.
The marsupial moles are arguably Australia's most enigmatic marsupials. Almost indistinguishable from placental (eutherian) moles, they provide a striking example of convergent evolution. Exploring the genome of the southern marsupial mole, we provide insights into its unusual biology. We show definitively by retrophylogenomic analysis that marsupial moles are most closely related to bandicoots and bilbies (order Peramelemorphia). We find evidence of a marked decline in marsupial mole effective population size, most likely preceding the arrival of humans in regions near its range, and potentially corresponding to periods of climatic change. Our analysis of loss of eye function-an adaptation to subterranean life-reveals a structured order of loss of gene function associated first with the lens, then cone, and finally rod cells. Last, we identify genetic changes suggestive of adaptation to an oxygen-poor environment and of its evolution of partially descended testes.
有袋鼹鼠可以说是澳大利亚最神秘的有袋动物。它们与胎盘类（真兽类）鼹鼠几乎难以区分，是趋同进化的一个显著例子。通过对南方有袋鼹鼠的基因组进行研究，我们深入了解了其独特的生物学特性。我们通过逆转录系统发育分析明确表明，有袋鼹鼠与袋狸和兔耳袋狸（袋狸目）关系最为密切。我们发现有袋鼹鼠的有效种群数量显著下降的证据，这很可能发生在人类到达其分布范围附近地区之前，并且可能与气候变化时期相对应。我们对眼睛功能丧失的分析——这是对地下生活的一种适应——揭示了基因功能丧失的结构化顺序，首先与晶状体相关，然后是视锥细胞，最后是视杆细胞。最后，我们识别出了一些遗传变化，这些变化表明其适应了缺氧环境以及部分下降的睾丸的进化。
