Surprisingly, these very different species evolved their unique ability to use sound waves to navigate and identify obstacles and tasty morsels, be they mosquito or minnow, in part by acquiring identical mutations in their genomes — mutations not shared by other, more closely related species like humpback whales, which patiently sieve the ocean for krill, or fruit bats, which seek stationary, yummy-smelling snacks.
The discovery solves a long-standing biological debate as to whether echolocating bats and whales have independently undergone many similar genomic changes “under the hood” to accomplish the same goal. It also opens the door to understanding more about the molecular basis for human disorders as varied as deafness, skin lesions caused by high cholesterol, and altitude sickness, the researchers said.
“Not only is it breathtaking to see how these very different species carved their own evolutionary niches for themselves through independently acquiring similar genetic changes, it’s beneficial to our understanding of our own physiology and development,” said Gill Bejerano, PhD, professor of developmental biology, of computer science, of pediatrics and of biomedical data science at Stanford. “Developmental biologists have long wondered whether, at the most basic level, something that’s the same on the outside — like species that use echolocation — are the same on the inside. That is, do they acquire these traits through similar molecular changes? Now we know that not only is this true as least some of the times, but also that many of these changes occur in the coding region of the genome. It’s fascinating.”
Author: maroon