Genomes: Is it a bird, is it a mammal…?

The duck-billed platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is a truly unique animal, and its fascinating genome. Platypuses are monotremes with almost no close relatives alive on earth. Scientists just had to take a look at that genome, and now an international collaboration of researchers report its sequencing and analysis.

Famously considered a hoax when sent from Australia to European researchers in the nineteenth century, the platypus is an amalgam of reptilian, mammalian and unique characteristics that provide clues to the function and evolution of all mammalian genomes. Sequencing of the platypus genome has helped to uncover the following: the origins of genomic imprinting in vertebrates; platypus venom proteins were co-opted independently from the same gene families that provided reptile venom; milk protein genes are conserved; and immune gene family expansions are directly related to platypus biology. As well as providing an invaluable resource for comparative genomics, the sequence will be important for monotreme conservation.

CONTACT

Wesley Warren (Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA)
Tel: +1 314 286 1899; E-mail: wwarren@wustl.edu

Jennifer Marshall Graves (Australian National University, Canberra, Australia)
Tel: +61 261 252 492; E-mail: jenny.graves@anu.edu.au

Ewan Birney (The European Bioinformatics Institute, Cambridge, UK)
E-mail: birney@ebi.ac.uk