ArticleMolecular biology and evolution2016
Hundreds of Genes Experienced Convergent Shifts in Selective Pressure in Marine Mammals.
Article in Molecular biology and evolution, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 94 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
94 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 190 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Advancing Marine Mammal Conservation Through Omics Tools and Integration of Indigenous Ecological Knowledge.Molecular ecology · 2026Review
- Evolutionary Rate Covariation Across Malaria Parasite Species Enables Inference of Protein Interactions.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Sensing Underwater: Diversifying Selection, Convergent Evolution and Inactivation in Sensory Receptors' Genes of Aquatic Mammals.Journal of molecular evolution · 2026Article
- The genetic foundations of convergent traits.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2026Review
- The genomic basis of independent marine transitions in turtles: convergent episodic adaptation and demographic shifts.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Article
- MoleRate: comparing molecular relative evolutionary rates to detect convergent evolution.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2026Article
- Evolutionary rate covariation across malaria parasite species enables inference of protein interactions.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- The assembly of microbial communities on red sandstone surfaces was shaped by dispersal limitation and heterogeneous selection.mSystems · 2026Article
- Insight Into Body Size Evolution in Aves: Based on Some Body Size-Related Genes.Integrative zoology · 2025Article
- Detecting Convergence of Amino Acid Physicochemical Properties Underlying the Organismal Adaptive Convergent Evolution.Molecular ecology resources · 2025Article
- Phylogenomic Approaches to Study Adaptive Evolution in Mammals: From Aging to Aquatic Lifestyles.Annual review of genetics · 2025Review
- Evolutionary Dynamics of Oncosuppression Under Selection Pressure.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Language models reveal a complex sequence basis for adaptive convergent evolution of protein functions.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Inference of Cytochrome P450 Evolutionary History Using Structural and Physicochemical Metrics.Genome biology and evolution · 2025Article
- From Trees to Traits: A Review of Advances in PhyloG2P Methods and Future Directions.Genome biology and evolution · 2025Review
- Integrating Intermediate Traits in Phylogenetic Genotype-to-Phenotype Studies.Integrative and comparative biology · 2025Review
- Genomic signatures of innovation and selection in the extremotolerant yeastbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- EvoWeaver: large-scale prediction of gene functional associations from coevolutionary signals.Nature communications · 2025Article
34 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
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Abstract
Mammal species have made the transition to the marine environment several times, and their lineages represent one of the classical examples of convergent evolution in morphological and physiological traits. Nevertheless, the genetic mechanisms of their phenotypic transition are poorly understood, and investigations into convergence at the molecular level have been inconclusive. While past studies have searched for convergent changes at specific amino acid sites, we propose an alternative strategy to identify those genes that experienced convergent changes in their selective pressures, visible as changes in evolutionary rate specifically in the marine lineages. We present evidence of widespread convergence at the gene level by identifying parallel shifts in evolutionary rate during three independent episodes of mammalian adaptation to the marine environment. Hundreds of genes accelerated their evolutionary rates in all three marine mammal lineages during their transition to aquatic life. These marine-accelerated genes are highly enriched for pathways that control recognized functional adaptations in marine mammals, including muscle physiology, lipid-metabolism, sensory systems, and skin and connective tissue. The accelerations resulted from both adaptive evolution as seen in skin and lung genes, and loss of function as in gustatory and olfactory genes. In regard to sensory systems, this finding provides further evidence that reduced senses of taste and smell are ubiquitous in marine mammals. Our analysis demonstrates the feasibility of identifying genes underlying convergent organism-level characteristics on a genome-wide scale and without prior knowledge of adaptations, and provides a powerful approach for investigating the physiological functions of mammalian genes.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.