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Didelphis albiventris: an overview of unprecedented transcriptome sequencing of the white-eared opossum.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:The white-eared opossum (Didelphis albiventris) is widely distributed throughout Brazil and South America. It has been used as an animal model for studying different scientific questions ranging from the restoration of degraded green areas to medical aspects of Chagas disease, leishmaniasis and resistance against snake venom. As a marsupial, D. albiventris can also contribute to the understanding of the molecular mechanisms that govern the different stages of organogenesis. Opossum joeys are born after only 13?days, and the final stages of organogenesis occur when the neonates are inside the pouch, depending on lactation. As neither the genome of this opossum species nor its transcriptome has been completely sequenced, the use of D. albiventris as an animal model is limited. In this work, we sequenced the D. albiventris transcriptome by RNA-seq to obtain the first catalogue of differentially expressed (DE) genes and gene ontology (GO) annotations during the neonatal stages of marsupial development. RESULTS:The D. albiventris transcriptome was obtained from whole neonates harvested at birth (P0), at 5 days of age (P5) and at 10 days of age (P10). The de novo assembly of these transcripts generated 85,338 transcripts. Approximately 30% of these transcripts could be mapped against the amino acid sequences of M. domestica, the evolutionarily closest relative of D. albiventris to be sequenced thus far. Among the expressed transcripts, 2077 were found to be DE between P0 and P5, 13,780 between P0 and P10, and 1453 between P5 and P10. The enriched GO terms were mainly related to the immune system, blood tissue development and differentiation, vision, hearing, digestion, the CNS and limb development. CONCLUSIONS:The elucidation of opossum transcriptomes provides an out-group for better understanding the distinct characteristics associated with the evolution of mammalian species. This study provides the first transcriptome sequences and catalogue of genes for a marsupial species at different neonatal stages, allowing the study of the mechanisms involved in organogenesis.

SUBMITTER: Dos Santos IGD

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6858782 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Didelphis albiventris: an overview of unprecedented transcriptome sequencing of the white-eared opossum.

Dos Santos Íria Gabriela Dias ÍGD de Oliveira Mendes Tiago Antônio TA Silva Gerluza Aparecida Borges GAB Reis Amanda Maria Sena AMS Monteiro-Vitorello Cláudia Barros CB Schaker Patricia Dayane Carvalho PDC Herai Roberto Hirochi RH Fabotti André Brait Carneiro ABC Coutinho Luiz Lehmann LL Jorge Erika Cristina EC

BMC genomics 20191115 1

<h4>Background</h4>The white-eared opossum (Didelphis albiventris) is widely distributed throughout Brazil and South America. It has been used as an animal model for studying different scientific questions ranging from the restoration of degraded green areas to medical aspects of Chagas disease, leishmaniasis and resistance against snake venom. As a marsupial, D. albiventris can also contribute to the understanding of the molecular mechanisms that govern the different stages of organogenesis. Op ...[more]

PMID: 31730444

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Project description:Didelphis albiventris and D. aurita are Neotropical marsupials that share a unique evolutionary history and both are largely distributed throughout South America, being primarily allopatric throughout their ranges. In the Araucaria moist forest of Southern Brazil these species are sympatric and they might potentially compete having similar ecology. For this reason, they are ideal biological models to address questions about ecological character displacement and how closely related species might share their geographic space. Little is known about how two morphologically similar species of marsupials may affect each other through competition, if by competitive exclusion and competitive release. We combined ecological niche modeling and geometric morphometrics to explore the possible effects of competition on their distributional ranges and skull morphology. Ecological niche modeling was used to predict their potential distribution and this method enabled us to identify a case of biotic exclusion where the habit generalist D. albiventris is excluded by the presence of the specialist D. aurita. The morphometric analyses show that a degree of shape discrimination occurs between the species, strengthened by allometric differences, which possibly allowed them to occupy marginally different feeding niches supplemented by behavioral shift in contact areas. Overlap in skull morphology is shown between sympatric and allopatric specimens and a significant, but weak, shift in shape occurs only in D. aurita in sympatric areas. This could be a residual evidence of a higher past competition between both species, when contact zones were possibly larger than today. Therefore, the specialist D. aurita acts a biotic barrier to D. albiventris when niche diversity is not available for coexistence. On the other hand, when there is niche diversification (e.g. habitat mosaic), both species are capable to coexist with a minimal competitive effect on the morphology of D. aurita.

Dataset Information

Didelphis albiventris: an overview of unprecedented transcriptome sequencing of the white-eared opossum.

Publications

Didelphis albiventris: an overview of unprecedented transcriptome sequencing of the white-eared opossum.

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