New paper by Chris on pseudogenes and the regression of oral anatomy published in Molecular Biology and Evolution

Chris Emerling's new paper on pseudogenes as documents of the parallel regression of oral anatomy in myrmecophagous mammals has been published in Molecular Biology and Evolution (doi:10.1093/molbev/msag009). This paper also integrates results obtained during Sophie's PhD on the evolution of taste receptors.

In this work, taking advantage of genomic data generated within the ConvergeAnt project for several ant-eating mammal species to study candidate genes involved in the anatomical regression of the oral apparatus (i.e. dental simplification or loss, reduction of masticatory muscles, and reduced taste buds). We investigated the functionality of candidate genes related to dentition, gustation, and mastication in nine convergent myrmecophagous mammalian lineages. We examined these genes in a comparative phylogenetic context, paired with molecular evolutionary analyses, to estimate the relative timing of loss of gene function over the evolutionary history of each convergent lineage. We found that gustatory reduction and pseudogenization of masticatory myosin were often associated with the regression of dental genes. Evidence of pseudogenization events linked to oral anatomy dates to as early as the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary, and is an ongoing process including examples of incipient gene inactivations. Whereas we found evidence for gene inactivations across all three functional categories occurring during distinct temporal intervals, there was variation in the sets of genes lost and the relative timing of inactivation events. The combined evidence suggests that the convergent evolution of myrmecophagy has occurred as a protracted process with distinct phases of anatomical evolution, over timescales as long as 60 Myr.

Citation:

Emerling C.A., Teullet S., Allio R., Gatesy J., Springer M.S. & Delsuc F. (2026). Pseudogenes document protracted parallel regressions of oral anatomy in myrmecophagous mammals. Molecular Biology and Evolution 43: msag009. doi:10.1093/molbev/msag009

#Pangolins #Anteaters #Aardvark #Armadillos #Genomics #Publication #Collaboration #Pseudogenes