The Antarctic Weddell Seal Genome Reveals Evidence of Selection on Cardiovascular Phenotype and Lipid Handling

Authors

Hyun Ji Noh, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Jason Turner-Maier, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
S. Anne Schulberg, Harvard Medical School
Michael L. Fitzgerald, Harvard Medical School
Jeremy Johnson, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Kaitlin N. Allen, Harvard Medical School
Luis A. Huckstadt, University of California, Santa Cruz
Annabelle J. Batten, Harvard Medical School
Jessica Alfoldi, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Daniel P. Costa, University of California, Santa Cruz
Elinor K. Karlsson, University of Massachusetts Medical School
Warren M. Zapol, Harvard Medical School
Emmanuel S. Buys, Harvard Medical School
Kerstin Lindbald-Toh, Uppsala University
Allyson G. Hindle, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-17-2022

Publication Title

Comunications Biology

Volume

5

First page number:

1

Last page number:

12

Abstract

The Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddellii) thrives in its extreme Antarctic environment. We generated the Weddell seal genome assembly and a high-quality annotation to investigate genome-wide evolutionary pressures that underlie its phenotype and to study genes implicated in hypoxia tolerance and a lipid-based metabolism. Genome-wide analyses included gene family expansion/contraction, positive selection, and diverged sequence (acceleration) compared to other placental mammals, identifying selection in coding and non-coding sequence in five pathways that may shape cardiovascular phenotype. Lipid metabolism as well as hypoxia genes contained more accelerated regions in the Weddell seal compared to genomic background. Top-significant genes were SUMO2 and EP300; both regulate hypoxia inducible factor signaling. Liver expression of four genes with the strongest acceleration signals differ between Weddell seals and a terrestrial mammal, sheep. We also report a high-density lipoprotein-like particle in Weddell seal serum not present in other mammals, including the shallow-diving harbor seal.

Controlled Subject

Animal genetics; Weddell seal

Disciplines

Molecular Genetics

File Format

PDF

File Size

1774 KB

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Repository Citation

Noh, H. J., Turner-Maier, J., Schulberg, S., Fitzgerald, M. L., Johnson, J., Allen, K. N., Huckstadt, L. A., Batten, A. J., Alfoldi, J., Costa, D. P., Karlsson, E. K., Zapol, W. M., Buys, E. S., Lindbald-Toh, K., Hindle, A. G. (2022). The Antarctic Weddell Seal Genome Reveals Evidence of Selection on Cardiovascular Phenotype and Lipid Handling. Comunications Biology, 5 1-12.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42003-022-03089-2