| Methodology & Validation |
"For a gene to be classified as lost, we require that a lineage, which descends from an ancestor with an intact gene, exhibits several gene-inactivating mutations that most likely result in a non-functional protein. As gene-inactivating mutations, we consider frameshifting insertions and deletions, inframe stop codon mutations, and splice site-disrupting mutations. In addition, we consider the loss of exons or even entire genes, which could occur due to either large deletions in the genome or the accumulation of numerous mutations that destroy any sequence similarity. For all previously unknown gene losses presented here, we further confirmed the loss by validating the gene-inactivating mutations with unassembled sequencing reads from the respective species." |
10.1038/s41467-018-03667-1 |
| Timing of Loss |
"The shared frameshift in exon 2 (asterisk) shows that the loss of FABP6 already happened in the ancestor of both fruit bats." |
10.1038/s41467-018-03667-1 |
| Phenotypic |
"Fruit bats have lost the FABP6 gene, which encodes ILBP (ileal lipid binding protein) that binds bile acids with a high affinity and fatty acids with a lower affinity." |
10.1038/s41467-018-03667-1 |
| Other |
"As the frugivorous diet is poor in fat, it is likely that fruit bats experienced a reduced selective pressure to maintain this gene and consequently lost it." |
10.1038/s41467-018-03667-1 |