ArticleMolecular biology and evolution2019
Complete Inactivation of Sebum-Producing Genes Parallels the Loss of Sebaceous Glands in Cetacea.
Article in Molecular biology and evolution, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 44 citations in OpenAlex.
- The genetic foundations of convergent traits.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2026Review
- Cell Death by Holocrine Secretion: The Final Step of Epithelial Differentiation in Sebaceous Glands.Cells · 2026Review
- Comparative Genomics Reveals Recurrent Loss ofGenes · 2026Article
- Decoding sebaceous gland functions and diseases: insights from domestic animals.Veterinary research communications · 2026Review
- Article
- Molecular divergence ofZoological research · 2026Article
- Transcriptome Analysis Reveals Anti-inflammatory, Antiapoptotic, and Milk Synthesis-Promoting Effects of Lithium Chloride in Bovine Mammary Epithelial Cells.Biological trace element research · 2025Article
- Cetacean loss of the master adipose tissue regulator βNature communications · 2025Article
- Spatial transcriptome analysis of the human eyelid depicts meibomian gland cell differentiation: A pilot study.Physiological reports · 2025Article
- Gene Loss DB: a curated database for gene loss in mammals-the cetacean collection.Database : the journal of biological databases and curation · 2025Article
- The genome of African manateeiScience · 2024Article
- Sirenian genomes illuminate the evolution of fully aquatic species within the mammalian superorder afrotheria.Nature communications · 2024Article
- The Acari Hypothesis, VI: human sebum and the cutaneous microbiome in allergy and in lipid homeostasis.Frontiers in allergy · 2024Article
- Copper-Epigallocatechin Gallate Enhances Therapeutic Effects of 3D-Printed Dermal Scaffolds in Mitigating Diabetic Wound Scarring.ACS applied materials & interfaces · 2023Article
- Decay of Skin-Specific Gene Modules in Pangolins.Journal of molecular evolution · 2023Article
- Cetacean epidermal specialization: A review.Anatomia, histologia, embryologia · 2022Review
- Gene losses may contribute to subterranean adaptations in naked mole-rat and blind mole-rat.BMC biology · 2022Article
- Functional loss of ketogenesis in odontocete cetaceans.The Journal of experimental biology · 2021Article
- Functional or Vestigial? The Genomics of the Pineal Gland in Xenarthra.Journal of molecular evolution · 2021Article
- Genomic and anatomical comparisons of skin support independent adaptation to life in water by cetaceans and hippos.Current biology : CB · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 6 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Genomes are dynamic biological units, with processes of gene duplication and loss triggering evolutionary novelty. The mammalian skin provides a remarkable case study on the occurrence of adaptive morphological innovations. Skin sebaceous glands (SGs), for instance, emerged in the ancestor of mammals serving pivotal roles, such as lubrication, waterproofing, immunity, and thermoregulation, through the secretion of sebum, a complex mixture of various neutral lipids such as triacylglycerol, free fatty acids, wax esters, cholesterol, and squalene. Remarkably, SGs are absent in a few mammalian lineages, including the iconic Cetacea. We investigated the evolution of the key molecular components responsible for skin sebum production: Dgat2l6, Awat1, Awat2, Elovl3, Mogat3, and Fabp9. We show that all analyzed genes have been rendered nonfunctional in Cetacea species (toothed and baleen whales). Transcriptomic analysis, including a novel skin transcriptome from blue whale, supports gene inactivation. The conserved mutational pattern found in most analyzed genes, indicates that pseudogenization events took place prior to the diversification of modern Cetacea lineages. Genome and skin transcriptome analysis of the common hippopotamus highlighted the convergent loss of a subset of sebum-producing genes, notably Awat1 and Mogat3. Partial loss profiles were also detected in non-Cetacea aquatic mammals, such as the Florida manatee, and in terrestrial mammals displaying specialized skin phenotypes such as the African elephant, white rhinoceros and pig. Our findings reveal a unique landscape of "gene vestiges" in the Cetacea sebum-producing compartment, with limited gene loss observed in other mammalian lineages: suggestive of specific adaptations or specializations of skin lipids.
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