Baiji genomes reveal low genetic variability and new insights into secondary aquatic adaptations

The baiji, or Yangtze River dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer), is a flagship species for the conservation of aquatic animals and ecosystems in the Yangtze River of China; however, this species has now been recognized as functionally extinct. Here we report a high-quality draft genome and three re-sequenced genomes of L. vexillifer using Illumina short-read sequencing technology. Comparative genomic analyses reveal that cetaceans have a slow molecular clock and molecular adaptations to their aquatic lifestyle. We also find a significantly lower number of heterozygous single nucleotide polymorphisms in the baiji compared to all other mammalian genomes reported thus far. A reconstruction of the demographic history of the baiji indicates that a bottleneck occurred near the end of the last deglaciation, a time coinciding with a rapid decrease in temperature and the rise of eustatic sea level. Despite major conservation efforts, the Yangtze river dolphin, or baiji, is now recognised as functionally extinct. Here, Zhou et al. report a high quality draft baiji genome, as well as three re-sequenced genomes, and highlight evolutionary adaptations to aquatic life.

• Publication year

  2013

• Venue

  Nature Communications

• Publication date

  2013-10-29

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1038/ncomms3708PMID 24169659PMCID 3826649
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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