Project description:While retaining ancestral morphological and genomic traits, skates evolved a novel body plan with remarkably enlarged wing-like fins that allowed skates to thrive in benthic environments, but their molecular underpinnings remain elusive. Here we investigate the origin of this phenotypical innovation by assembling a high-quality chromosome-scale genome sequence for the little skate Leucoraja erinacea and by generating extensive regulatory profiling datasets in developing fins (gene expression, chromatin occupancy and conformation). We show that despite their derived morphology, the skate genome retains multiple features of the ancestral jawed vertebrate genome.
Project description:While retaining ancestral morphological and genomic traits, skates evolved a novel body plan with remarkably enlarged wing-like fins that allowed skates to thrive in benthic environments, but their molecular underpinnings remain elusive. Here we investigate the origin of this phenotypical innovation by assembling a high-quality chromosome-scale genome sequence for the little skate Leucoraja erinacea and by generating extensive regulatory profiling datasets in developing fins (gene expression, chromatin occupancy and conformation). We show that despite their derived morphology, the skate genome retains multiple features of the ancestral jawed vertebrate genome.
Project description:While retaining ancestral morphological and genomic traits, skates evolved a novel body plan with remarkably enlarged wing-like fins that allowed skates to thrive in benthic environments, but their molecular underpinnings remain elusive. Here we investigate the origin of this phenotypical innovation by assembling a high-quality chromosome-scale genome sequence for the little skate Leucoraja erinacea and by generating extensive regulatory profiling datasets in developing fins (gene expression, chromatin occupancy and conformation). We show that despite their derived morphology, the skate genome retains multiple features of the ancestral jawed vertebrate genome.
Project description:While retaining ancestral morphological and genomic traits, skates evolved a novel body plan with remarkably enlarged wing-like fins that allowed skates to thrive in benthic environments, but their molecular underpinnings remain elusive. Here we investigate the origin of this phenotypical innovation by assembling a high-quality chromosome-scale genome sequence for the little skate Leucoraja erinacea and by generating extensive regulatory profiling datasets in developing fins (gene expression, chromatin occupancy and conformation). We show that despite their derived morphology, the skate genome retains multiple features of the ancestral jawed vertebrate genome.
Project description:While retaining ancestral morphological and genomic traits, skates evolved a novel body plan with remarkably enlarged wing-like fins that allowed skates to thrive in benthic environments, but their molecular underpinnings remain elusive. Here we investigate the origin of this phenotypical innovation by assembling a high-quality chromosome-scale genome sequence for the little skate Leucoraja erinacea and by generating extensive regulatory profiling datasets in developing fins (gene expression, chromatin occupancy and conformation). We show that despite their derived morphology, the skate genome retains multiple features of the ancestral jawed vertebrate genome.
Project description:While retaining ancestral morphological and genomic traits, skates evolved a novel body plan with remarkably enlarged wing-like fins that allowed skates to thrive in benthic environments, but their molecular underpinnings remain elusive. Here we investigate the origin of this phenotypical innovation by assembling a high-quality chromosome-scale genome sequence for the little skate Leucoraja erinacea and by generating extensive regulatory profiling datasets in developing fins (gene expression, chromatin occupancy and conformation). We show that despite their derived morphology, the skate genome retains multiple features of the ancestral jawed vertebrate genome.
Project description:The synarcual is a specialized adaptation of the anterior axial skeleton comprising a putatively fused array of vertebral elements characteristic of jawed vertebrate (gnathostome) clades such as batoid and chimaeroid chondrichthyans, as well as a fossil group known as the placoderms. Placoderms represent the phylogenetically most basal jawed vertebrates and the presence of a synarcual in these and chondrichthyans may suggest a conserved vertebral type for jawed vertebrates, predating the divergence of stem and crown gnathostomes. Alternatively, synarcuals may have evolved independently in these lineages, exhibiting a remarkable case of morphological convergence. We investigated the early development of the cervicothoracic synarcual of an emerging model chondrichthyan, the Little skate Leucoraja erinacea, by combining x-ray computed tomography, classical histology, and a de novo transcriptome assembly for two developmental stages of the skate synarcual and post-synarcual axial skeletal elements.
Project description:Gene expression profiling of pooled late stage embryos from Leucoraja erinacea, Scyliorhinus canicula and Callorhinchus milii show that HOXC cluster genes are not expressed in the two elasmobranch fishes, L. erinacea and S. canicula. This finding supports the observations that these genes are not found in whole genome shotgun sequencing of L. erinacea or genomic clones from S. canicula. Profile gene expression in pooled late stage embryos from three species (L. erinacea, S. canicula and C. milii)