Genomic legacy of the African cheeta, acinonyx jubatus
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Transcript Genomic legacy of the African cheeta, acinonyx jubatus
Dobrynin et al., Genome Biology, 2015
The African cheetah
Fastest land animal
Ancestors were distributed in
the Americas, Europe and Asia
until ~10,000 – 12,000 years
ago
Massive extinction reduced
their range to eastern and
southern Africa
Likely evolved from common
ancestor with the American
puma
Dramatic reduction in genetic variability due to bottleneck(s)
Conservation icon symbol
A model for the impacts of increased inbreeding
Fastest land animal
Actually seven genome sequences
Main subject – Chewbaaka, a male from Namibia
Seven mate-paired libraries of varying insert sizes (170 bp, 500 bp, 800 bp, 2000 bp,
5000 bp, 10,000 bp, and 20,000 bp)
Sequenced to ~75x coverage and assembled using SOAPdenovo2
Used the existing domestic cat genome to help with the assembly and map to
chromosomes
Other six genomes were sequenced at 5-6X coverage using 500 bp insert libraries
Genome size = 2.38-2.4 Gb
N50 contigs = 28.2 kb
N50 scaffolds = 3.1 Mb
20,343 coding genes
39.5% repetitive content
SNV rate in mammals.
‘Remarkable reduction in the cheetah’s
genic and genomic variability
Lowest Single Nucleotide Variants among
11 other sequenced mammals
90% lower than the domestic cat
Number of SNVs in protein-coding genes in felid
genomes.
‘Remarkable reduction in the
cheeta’s genic and genomic
variability
Lowest Single Nucleotide Variants
among 11 other sequenced mammals
90% lower than the domestic cat
Very few variants in coding gene
complement
‘Remarkable reduction in the cheeta’s
genic and genomic variability
Lowest Single Nucleotide Variants
among 11 other sequenced mammals
90% lower than the domestic cat
Very few variants in coding gene
complement
10-15 fold longer stretches of
homozygous DNA when compared to
domestic cat
93% of the genome is homozygous
The genome of Boris, an outbred feral domestic cat living in St. Petersburg (top) is compared to Cinnamon, a highly inbred Abyssinian
cat (Fca-6.2 reference for domestic cat genome sequence [19, 20], middle) and a cheetah (Chewbacca, bottom) as described here.
Approximately 15,000 regions of 100 Mb across the genome for each species were assessed for SNVs. Regions of high variability (
>40 SNVs/100 kbp) are colored red; highly homozygous regions (≤40 SNVs/100 kbp) are colored green. The first seven chromosome
homologues of the genomes of Boris, Cinnamon and Chewbacca are displayed for direct comparison.
Population genomic analysis supports
“an expanding population that
subdivides into two bottlenecked
derivative populations”
Cheetahs have reproductive problems
characteristic of inbreeding
depression
92 genes with high rates of non-
synonymous mutations.
18 were associated with reproduction
946 genes with signatures of selection
Several associated with cardiac and
muscle function
Others associated with energy
production
Are the changes to genes that are apparently adaptive for high-speed pursuit the
same as the genes associated with adaptations to high-altitude living?
Do you find the same genes under selection in non-mammal speed demons?
How could you test the hypothesis that the ‘energetic’ genes are actually associated
with high-speed pursuit evolution?