Todd Castoes, Banquet address tonight on The Snake Genome fried my brain. Jam packed with data on a wide variety of areas. On what they genes are doing and when they do it. Hope I can recall what I heard once my brain re-solidifies. Snake genomes provide insight into the evolutionary origins of extreme phenotypes in vertebrates Castoe TA Department of Biology, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX 76019, USA Snakes possess many extreme and unique morphological and physiological adaptations that make them among the most fundamentally different amniote vertebrates. The uniqueness of the form and function of snakes motivates the analysis of how evolution has uniquely shaped snake genomes, and how these genomic changes have led to the unique physical characteristics and adaptations of snakes. Here we link major evolutionary shifts in metabolic protein function to extreme feats of metabolism and physiology observed in snakes. We present evidence that major increases in organ size and physiology following feeding in snakes is driven by extensive shifts in gene expression, and that future study of these expression patterns hold promise for novel insight into organ remodelling in vertebrates. We describe evidence that snake genomes have undergone unprecedented levels of positive selection to change protein function, and the genes identified as targets of selection seem clearly related to the evolution of snake-specific characteristics. The structure and evolution of snake genomes, on the whole, are shown to be unique among vertebrates, which indicates snakes are an exciting and valuable model system studying the detailed interactions of multiple inter-related genomic attributes and features (e.g., epigenetics, transposable elements, mutation rates, recombination, etc.). Lastly, we show examples of how snake genome information can deliver new insight into patterns of adaptation occurring recently across snake populations, which provides compelling evidence that snake evolution is indeed an ongoing process.
Posted on: Sun, 08 Jun 2014 01:27:18 +0000
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