Ψ KRT28 - Balaenoptera acutorostrata

Reference Gene:
Job_ID:
Curator:
GlossID Species Gene Loss Mechanism Loss Type Lineage Specific Evidence Accession Nr.
GL_25IMWY Balaenoptera acutorostrata Gene deletion Full No Genomic & Synteny maps

Statements

Type Excerpt DOI
Functional "Hair follicle-specific keratin genes consisted of 9 hair follicle-specific epithelial keratin genes (K71-K75, K25-K28) and 17 hair keratins (K31-K40, K81-K86) expressed in hair follicle and hair which could directly affect hair growth." 10.1186/s12983-017-0225-x
Mutation Description "Nine keratin subfamilies were completely absent in cetaceans when compared to its terrestrial relative of artiodactylans, such as six type I genes (K10, K25, K27, K28, K33A, K33B) and three type II genes (K1, K73, K77)." 10.1186/s12983-017-0225-x
Methodology & Validation "We first identified α-keratin gene repertoires in the cow (Bos taurus) (coverage 7×,Btau_4.6.1) [...] taking all the known α-keratin gene sequences of human as queries using BLASTN and TBLASTN algorithm. [...] The putative α-keratin genes in the cow were then taken as queries to explore the α-keratin multigene family in the genome of 11 marine mammals, including [...] minke whale (B. acutorostrata, coverage 92×, BalAcu1.0, NCBI)." 10.1186/s12983-017-0225-x
Phenotypic "Our results show an apparent reduction in the α-keratin gene repertoire and increased rate of pseudogenization in cetaceans when compared to terrestrial counterparts, which may be associated with their hairless phenotype." 10.1186/s12983-017-0225-x

Curator Observations

The authors named the keratins according to the human nomenclature. Despite there not being a shared conserved mutation across the lineage, the loss was considered to be lineage specific since the authors describe the loss as a whole gene absence in all analyzed cetaceans.