Gene Loss

Publication Details

Identifier: JB_RURHUE

Curator: Nádia Silva

Title:

Inactivation of thermogenic UCP1 as a historical contingency in multiple placental mammal clades.

Abstract:

Mitochondrial uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) is essential for nonshivering thermogenesis in brown adipose tissue and is widely accepted to have played a key thermoregulatory role in small-bodied and neonatal placental mammals that enabled the exploitation of cold environments. We map ucp1 sequences from 133 mammals onto a species tree constructed from a ~51-kb sequence alignment and show that inactivating mutations have occurred in at least 8 of the 18 traditional placental orders, thereby challenging the physiological importance of UCP1 across Placentalia. Selection and timetree analyses further reveal that ucp1 inactivations temporally correspond with strong secondary reductions in metabolic intensity in xenarthrans and pangolins, or in six other lineages coincided with a ~30 million-year episode of global cooling in the Paleogene that promoted sharp increases in body mass and cladogenesis evident in the fossil record. Our findings also demonstrate that members of various lineages (for example, cetaceans, horses, woolly mammoths, Steller's sea cows) evolved extreme cold hardiness in the absence of UCP1-mediated thermogenesis. Finally, we identify ucp1 inactivation as a historical contingency that is linked to the current low species diversity of clades lacking functional UCP1, thus providing the first evidence for species selection related to the presence or absence of a single gene product.

Last update:

13-12-2024

Associated Glosses (31 results)

GlossID	Species	Symbol	Gene Loss Mechanism	Loss Type	Lineage Specific	Citation
GL_0VIIUZ	Bradypus variegatus	UCP1	LOF (frameshift, premature stop, ss)	Full	Xenarthra	10.1126/sciadv.1602878
GL_21VNSY	Sus scrofa	UCP1	LOF (frameshift, premature stop, ss)	Full	Suidae	10.1126/sciadv.1602878
GL_5GBBAB	Hydrodamalis gigas	UCP1	LOF (frameshift, premature stop, ss)	Full	Sirenia	10.1126/sciadv.1602878
GL_6XBDJJ	Physeter catodon	UCP1	LOF (frameshift, premature stop, ss)	Full	Cetacea	10.1126/sciadv.1602878
GL_7KMQ6L	Equus caballus	UCP1	LOF (frameshift, premature stop, ss)	Full	Equidae	10.1126/sciadv.1602878
GL_8P80XH	Equus asinus africanus	UCP1	LOF (frameshift, premature stop, ss)	Full	Equidae	10.1126/sciadv.1602878
GL_9BQBEJ	Balaena mysticetus	UCP1	LOF (frameshift, premature stop, ss)	Full	Cetacea	10.1126/sciadv.1602878
GL_A6WH6M	Dasypus novemcinctus	UCP1	LOF (frameshift, premature stop, ss)	Full	Xenarthra	10.1126/sciadv.1602878
GL_B0UIS6	Choloepus hoffmanni	UCP1	LOF (frameshift, premature stop, ss)	Full	Xenarthra	10.1126/sciadv.1602878
GL_BSG9F1	Loxodonta africana	UCP1	LOF (frameshift, premature stop, ss)	Full	Proboscidea	10.1126/sciadv.1602878