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- Title
Cetacea are natural knockouts for IL20.
- Authors
Lopes-Marques, Mónica; Machado, André M.; Barbosa, Susana; Fonseca, Miguel M.; Ruivo, Raquel; Castro, L. Filipe C.
- Abstract
The Cetacea infraorder comprises a very unique group within the mammalian lineage. While sharing common ancestors with terrestrial mammals, their exclusive dependence on aquatic environments makes them attractive models to explore the landscape of molecular shifts in radical habitat transitions. Among their diverse anatomical and physiological solutions, we find detectable genetic remodeling of the immune system. In agreement, here we show that the gene sequence of interleukin-20 (IL20) displays unambiguous signs of inactivation with several disruptive mutations, including stop codons, insertions, and a conserved trans-species mutation abolishing a canonical splice site, in nine analyzed cetacean genomes. Considering the suggested role of IL20 in skin immunity processes, including inflammation, epithelization, and remodeling, we propose that gene inactivation follows specific adaptations of cetacean skin to the aquatic environment, in frame with the less-is-more hypothesis.
- Subjects
CETACEA; INTERLEUKINS; AQUATIC ecology; IMMUNE system; GENETIC mutation
- Publication
Immunogenetics, 2018, Vol 70, Issue 10, p681
- ISSN
0093-7711
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s00251-018-1071-5