Ψ KRT85 - Neophocaena asiaeorientalis asiaeorientalis

Reference Gene:
Job_ID:
Curator:
GlossID Species Gene Loss Mechanism Loss Type Lineage Specific Evidence Accession Nr.
GL_RTDSKE Neophocaena asiaeorientalis asiaeorientalis Other Full No Genomic & Synteny maps XM_024736558.1

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
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 [...] Yangtze finless porpoise (Neophocaena asiaeorientalis asiaeorientalis, unpublished data)." 10.1186/s12983-017-0225-x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. The authors describe this as a "pseudogene", and no further explanation or sequence information is provided. As such, the gene loss mechanism is inconclusive. This is the only species in which the gene was found not to be coding. This includes all analyzed cetaceans.