[Study of animal myosins in a comparative genomic aspect] Изучение миозинов животных в сравнительном геномном аспекте

Lancelets, or amphioxi, found in warm seas are the only living representatives of the subphylum Cephalochordata. Their genome research is helpful in making inferences about chordate evolution and phylogeny. The cephalochordate lineage, with a fossil record dating back to the Cambrian period, has been characterized as having a slow evolutionary rate, first noticed at a phenotypic level and later at a genomic level. It is this slow divergence, as well as its phylogenetic position as the basal chordate group, that makes amphioxus a useful proxy for investigating chordate evolution. Whole genome comparisons for three chordate groups including lancelets, tunicates and vertebrates have elucidated their phylogenetic relationships. Whilst comparison of conserved gene families has shown that where the amphioxus genome contains a basic set of genes (e.g., for cell signaling), vertebrates often have 2, 3 or 4 paralogs derived from two whole genome duplication events, conserved across this very wide phylogenetic distance.

Большие семейства генов, такие как миозины, которые наблюдаются у позвоночных животных, используются для реконструкции филогенетических деревьев, например, на основе моторных доменов миозина. Это способствует дальнейшему пониманию эволюционного паттерна многочисленных видов животных как в контексте двух событий дупликации предкового генома, так и для подтверждения положения отдельных групп хордовых животных.