Platypus genome deciphered
The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus),most of us will be familiar with this amazing creature through our school text books which is endemic to Australia for being one of few egg laying mammals .Not only this feature of its makes it different but it has many others uncommon mammalian characters to its credit.It resembles a duck’s bill ,otter footed,males posses venom in their hind legs spur,potent enough to kill a dog and they have thick fur coat to survive in icy waters .Platypus happens to be most perplexing creature exhibiting a mixture of reptilian, birds and mammalian characters making them Nature’s oddest creature for some and most ultimate creatures with best of everything for others.The ancestors of this perplexing animal split from rest of mammalian lineage 160 million years ago and it occupies a lonely position somewhere at the bottom of the evolutionary tree of vertebrates.
Researchers always wanted to know DNA composition of this amazing creature which makes it exhibit characteristics of reptiles,birds and mammals.Yesterday Nature journal came out with the complete genome sequence of platypus,as expected it revealed uniques features to platypus genome and also showed much conservation to mammalian genes.
What can we learn from the genome of platypus?
1) This organism might look funny but its genome will give valuable insights about evolution and function of various mammals including humans.
2) It will help to understand how fundamental mammalian biological process evolved.
3) After through analysis of comparing the genomes scientists can find out the genes conserved during evolution and also genes lost or gained which would be immensely valuable for evo devo studies.It might throw some more light on this enigmatic creation of nature and we can understand at molecular level how these animals posses features of three different groups.
4) Scientists will also be eager to find out what characteristics of the platypus were linked at the DNA level to reptiles or mammals.
“There is nothing quite as enigmatic as platypus”–Richard GIBBS,HGSC,Baylor college of Medicine in Houston, TEXAS.
Now scientists started comparing the genome with other mammals and chicken to find out what makes platypus exhibit odd mix of reptiles, aves and mammals.They found out approximately 18,500 genes in platypus genome and share maximum genes with mammals apart from genes specific to platypus were also found.The first impression of sequence further confirms its place in the ancestral line of animal evolution.
Read the original article for more insights and link to related video of the researchers.
Want to known more about platypus,…just check out these videos
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