Tracing the genetic footprints of vertebrate landing in non-teleost ray-finned fishes

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

  • Xupeng Bi
  • Kun Wang
  • Liandong Yang
  • Hailin Pan
  • Haifeng Jiang
  • Qiwei Wei
  • Miaoquan Fang
  • Hao Yu
  • Chenglong Zhu
  • Yiran Cai
  • Yuming He
  • Xiaoni Gan
  • Honghui Zeng
  • Daqi Yu
  • Youan Zhu
  • Huifeng Jiang
  • Qiang Qiu
  • Huanming Yang
  • Yong E. Zhang
  • Wen Wang
  • Min Zhu
  • Shunping He

Rich fossil evidence suggests that many traits and functions related to terrestrial evolution were present long before the ancestor of lobe- and ray-finned fishes. Here, we present genome sequences of the bichir, paddlefish, bowfin, and alligator gar, covering all major early divergent lineages of ray-finned fishes. Our analyses show that these species exhibit many mosaic genomic features of lobe- and ray-finned fishes. In particular, many regulatory elements for limb development are present in these fishes, supporting the hypothesis that the relevant ancestral regulation networks emerged before the origin of tetrapods. Transcriptome analyses confirm the homology between the lung and swim bladder and reveal the presence of functional lung-related genes in early ray-finned fishes. Furthermore, we functionally validate the essential role of a jawed vertebrate highly conserved element for cardiovascular development. Our results imply the ancestors of jawed vertebrates already had the potential gene networks for cardio-respiratory systems supporting air breathing. Comparative analyses of divergent lineages of ray-finned fishes reveal that that these species exhibit mosaic genomic features that have facilitated the adaptive evolution of phenotypes that contributed to the water-to-land transition.

Original languageEnglish
JournalCell
Volume184
Issue number5
Pages (from-to)1377-1391, e1-e14
ISSN0092-8674
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

    Research areas

  • basal ray-finned fishes, cardiorespiratory system, genome evolution, limb, lung, swim bladder, terrestrial adaptation, vertebrate landing

ID: 258276595