Phylotranscriptomic Insights into the Diversification of Endothermic Thunnus Tunas

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DOI

  • Adam G Ciezarek
    Imperial College London
  • Owen G Osborne
    Jacobs University BremenImperial College London
  • Oliver N Shipley
    The Cape Eleuthera Institute
  • Edward J Brooks
    The Cape Eleuthera Institute
  • Sean R Tracey
    University of Tasmania
  • Jaime D McAllister
    University of Tasmania
  • Luke D Gardner
    Stanford University
  • Michael J E Sternberg
    Imperial College London
  • Barbara Block
    Stanford University
  • Vincent Savolainen
    Imperial College London

Birds, mammals, and certain fishes, including tunas, opahs and lamnid sharks, are endothermic, conserving internally generated, metabolic heat to maintain body or tissue temperatures above that of the environment. Bluefin tunas are commercially important fishes worldwide, and some populations are threatened. They are renowned for their endothermy, maintaining elevated temperatures of the oxidative locomotor muscle, viscera, brain and eyes, and occupying cold, productive high-latitude waters. Less cold-tolerant tunas, such as yellowfin tuna, by contrast, remain in warm-temperate to tropical waters year-round, reproducing more rapidly than most temperate bluefin tuna populations, providing resiliency in the face of large-scale industrial fisheries. Despite the importance of these traits to not only fisheries but also habitat utilization and responses to climate change, little is known of the genetic processes underlying the diversification of tunas. In collecting and analyzing sequence data across 29,556 genes, we found that parallel selection on standing genetic variation is associated with the evolution of endothermy in bluefin tunas. This includes two shared substitutions in genes encoding glycerol-3 phosphate dehydrogenase, an enzyme that contributes to thermogenesis in bumblebees and mammals, as well as four genes involved in the Krebs cycle, oxidative phosphorylation, β-oxidation, and superoxide removal. Using phylogenetic techniques, we further illustrate that the eight Thunnus species are genetically distinct, but found evidence of mitochondrial genome introgression across two species. Phylogeny-based metrics highlight conservation needs for some of these species.

Keywords

  • Animals, Biological Evolution, Endangered Species, Genome, Mitochondrial, Hybridization, Genetic, Mutation, Selection, Genetic, Thermogenesis/genetics, Tuna/genetics
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)84-96
Number of pages13
JournalMolecular Biology and Evolution
Volume36
Issue number1
Early online date26 Oct 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2019
Externally publishedYes
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