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Merck

Genetic basis of ruminant headgear and rapid antler regeneration.

Science (New York, N.Y.) (2019-06-22)
Yu Wang, Chenzhou Zhang, Nini Wang, Zhipeng Li, Rasmus Heller, Rong Liu, Yue Zhao, Jiangang Han, Xiangyu Pan, Zhuqing Zheng, Xueqin Dai, Ceshi Chen, Mingle Dou, Shujun Peng, Xianqing Chen, Jing Liu, Ming Li, Kun Wang, Chang Liu, Zeshan Lin, Lei Chen, Fei Hao, Wenbo Zhu, Chengchuang Song, Chen Zhao, Chengli Zheng, Jianming Wang, Shengwei Hu, Cunyuan Li, Hui Yang, Lin Jiang, Guangyu Li, Mingjun Liu, Tad S Sonstegard, Guojie Zhang, Yu Jiang, Wen Wang, Qiang Qiu
PMID31221830
ABSTRACT

Ruminants are the only extant mammalian group possessing bony (osseous) headgear. We obtained 221 transcriptomes from bovids and cervids and sequenced three genomes representing the only two pecoran lineages that convergently lack headgear. Comparative analyses reveal that bovid horns and cervid antlers share similar gene expression profiles and a common cellular basis developed from neural crest stem cells. The rapid regenerative properties of antler tissue involve exploitation of oncogenetic pathways, and at the same time some tumor suppressor genes are under strong selection in deer. These results provide insights into the evolutionary origin of ruminant headgear as well as mammalian organ regeneration and oncogenesis.