Gibbon genome and the fast karyotype evolution of small apes

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

10-Sep-2014

Contact: Billy Gomila bgomila@lsu.edu 225-578-3867 Louisiana State University @LSUResearchNews

BATON ROUGE LSU's Mark Batzer, LSU Boyd Professor and Dr. Mary Lou Applewhite Distinguished Professor, along with Research Assistant Professor Miriam Konkel and Research Associate Jerilyn Walker in Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Science, contributed to an article featured on the cover of the scientific journal Nature, titled "Gibbon Genome and the Fast Karyotype Evolution of Small Apes."

An abstract of the article can be found at http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v513/n7517/full/nature13679.html?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20140911. The issue of Nature will be published on Sept. 11.

Batzer, Konkel and Walker contributed to the analysis of the mobile elements in the gibbon genome. This included the characterization of the mobile genetic element called LAVA.

LAVA is made up of pieces of known jumping genes and named after its main components: L1, Alu, and the VA section of SVA mobile elements. The gibbon-specific LAVA element represents only the second type of composite mobile element discovered in primates, since the discovery of the mobile element SVA in humans.

The sequencing, assembly and analysis of the gibbon genome provide new insights into the biology and evolutionary history of this family of apes. Factors that might have contributed to gibbon diversity and that might have helped gibbons to adapt to their jungle habitat are reported.

As part of the gibbon genome project, Batzer analyzed the evolution of gibbon-specific mobile elements, including their subfamily structure and distribution among the various gibbon species. The discovery of LAVA further highlights the dynamic evolution of mobile elements and their dynamic impact on primate genomes.

Gibbons are small, tree-living apes from Southeast Asia, many species of which are endangered. They are part of the same superfamily as humans and great apes, but sit on the divide between Old-World monkeys and the great apes. These creatures have several distinctive traits, such as an unusually large number of chromosomal rearrangements, and different numbers of chromosomes are seen in individual species.

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Gibbon genome and the fast karyotype evolution of small apes