ArticleCurrent biology : CB2021
Genomic and anatomical comparisons of skin support independent adaptation to life in water by cetaceans and hippos.
Article in Current biology : CB, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers.
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Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 52 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sensing Underwater: Diversifying Selection, Convergent Evolution and Inactivation in Sensory Receptors' Genes of Aquatic Mammals.Journal of molecular evolution · 2026Article
- Decoding sebaceous gland functions and diseases: insights from domestic animals.Veterinary research communications · 2026Review
- Article
- Neutral lipid fatty acid composition in the epidermis and blubber of long-finned pilot whales (Marine biology · 2026Article
- Cardiac conduction system and the electrocardiogram of the common hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius).Experimental physiology · 2025Article
- Cetacean loss of the master adipose tissue regulator βNature communications · 2025Article
- Symbiosis with and mimicry of corals were facilitated by immune gene loss and body remodeling in the pygmy seahorse.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Tertiary Lymphoid Organs at the Center Stage of Skin's Humoral Immunity.Immunological reviews · 2025Review
- PMab-322: a novel anti-hippopotamus podoplanin monoclonal antibody for multiple applications.Biochemistry and biophysics reports · 2025Article
- Structural characteristics of the epidermis in marine and freshwater finless porpoises adapted to distinct osmotic environments.Current zoology · 2025Article
- Low Heterozygosity and Historical Bottleneck Effect Depicted From the Genome Assembly of the Indus River Dolphin (Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Genomic signatures associated with the evolutionary loss of egg yolk in parasitoid wasps.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Skin Appendage Proteins of Tetrapods: Building Blocks of Claws, Feathers, Hair and Other Cornified Epithelial Structures.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Review
- Epiplakin expression is lost in psoriatic skin lesions and is downregulated by IFN-γ inFrontiers in cell and developmental biology · 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 genetic secrets of adaptation: decoding the significance of the 30-bp insertion in theAnimal biotechnology · 2023Article
- Three Blind Moles: Molecular Evolutionary Insights on the Tempo and Mode of Convergent Eye Degeneration inGenes · 2023Article
- Pseudogenization of the Hair-Related Genes PADI3 and S100A3 in Cetaceans and Hippopotamus amphibius.Journal of molecular evolution · 2023Article
- Decay of Skin-Specific Gene Modules in Pangolins.Journal of molecular evolution · 2023Article
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11 authors at 8 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The macroevolutionary transition from terra firma to obligatory inhabitance of the marine hydrosphere has occurred twice in the history of Mammalia: Cetacea and Sirenia. In the case of Cetacea (whales, dolphins, and porpoises), molecular phylogenies provide unambiguous evidence that fully aquatic cetaceans and semiaquatic hippopotamids (hippos) are each other's closest living relatives. Ancestral reconstructions suggest that some adaptations to the aquatic realm evolved in the common ancestor of Cetancodonta (Cetacea + Hippopotamidae). An alternative hypothesis is that these adaptations evolved independently in cetaceans and hippos. Here, we focus on the integumentary system and evaluate these hypotheses by integrating new histological data for cetaceans and hippos, the first genome-scale data for pygmy hippopotamus, and comprehensive genomic screens and molecular evolutionary analyses for protein-coding genes that have been inactivated in hippos and cetaceans. We identified eight skin-related genes that are inactivated in both cetaceans and hippos, including genes that are related to sebaceous glands, hair follicles, and epidermal differentiation. However, none of these genes exhibit inactivating mutations that are shared by cetaceans and hippos. Mean dates for the inactivation of skin genes in these two clades serve as proxies for phenotypic changes and suggest that hair reduction/loss, the loss of sebaceous glands, and changes to the keratinization program occurred ∼16 Ma earlier in cetaceans (∼46.5 Ma) than in hippos (∼30.5 Ma). These results, together with histological differences in the integument and prior analyses of oxygen isotopes from stem hippopotamids ("anthracotheres"), support the hypothesis that aquatic skin adaptations evolved independently in hippos and cetaceans.
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