accelerated foxp2 evolution in echolocating bats在蝙蝠回声是加速foxp2基因进化.pdfVIP

Accelerated FoxP2 Evolution in Echolocating Bats 1,2 1 3 4 1 Gang Li , Jinhong Wang , Stephen J. Rossiter *, Gareth Jones , Shuyi Zhang * 1 School of Life Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China, 2 Institute of Zoology and Graduate University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, 3 School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London, London, United Kingdom, 4 School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom FOXP2 is a transcription factor implicated in the development and neural control of orofacial coordination, particularly with respect to vocalisation. Observations that orthologues show almost no variation across vertebrates yet differ by two amino acids between humans and chimpanzees have led to speculation that recent evolutionary changes might relate to the emergence of language. Echolocating bats face especially challenging sensorimotor demands, using vocal signals for orientation and often for prey capture. To determine whether mutations in the FoxP2 gene could be associated with echolocation, we sequenced FoxP2 from echolocating and non-echolocating bats as well as a range of other mammal species. We found that contrary to previous reports, FoxP2 is not highly conserved across all nonhuman mammals but is extremely diverse in echolocating bats. We detected divergent selection (a change in selective pressure) at FoxP2 between bats with contrasting sonar systems, suggesting the intriguing possibility of a role for FoxP2 in the evolution and development of echolocation. We speculate that observed accelerated evolution of FoxP2 in bats supports a previously proposed function in sensorimotor coordination. Citation: Li G, Wang J, R