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Article
Open AccessWidespread chromosomal rearrangements preceded genetic divergence in a monitor lizard, Varanus acanthurus (Varanidae)
Chromosomal rearrangements are often associated with local adaptation and speciation because they suppress recombination, and as a result, rearrangements have been implicated in disrupting gene flow. Although ...
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Article
High elevation increases the risk of Y chromosome loss in Alpine skink populations with sex reversal
The view that has genotypic sex determination and environmental sex determination as mutually exclusive states in fishes and reptiles has been contradicted by the discovery that chromosomal sex and environment...
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Article
The methylation and telomere landscape in two families of marsupials with different rates of chromosome evolution
Two marsupial families exemplify divergent rates of karyotypic change. The Dasyurid family has an extremely conserved karyotype. In contrast, there is significant chromosomal variation within the Macropodidae ...
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Article
Open AccessAdaptation and conservation insights from the koala genome
The koala, the only extant species of the marsupial family Phascolarctidae, is classified as ‘vulnerable’ due to habitat loss and widespread disease. We sequenced the koala genome, producing a complete and con...
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Article
Open AccessIdentification of candidate genes for devil facial tumour disease tumourigenesis
Devil facial tumour (DFT) disease, a transmissible cancer where the infectious agent is the tumour itself, has caused a dramatic decrease in Tasmanian devil numbers in the wild. The purpose of this study was t...
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Article
Identification of interleukin genes in Pogona vitticeps using a de novo transcriptome assembly from RNA-seq data
Interleukins are a group of cytokines with complex immunomodulatory functions that are important for regulating immunity in vertebrate species. Reptiles and mammals last shared a common ancestor more than 350 ...
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Article
Marsupials as models for understanding the role of chromosome rearrangements in evolution and disease
Chromosome rearrangements have been implicated in diseases, such as cancer, and speciation, but it remains unclear whether rearrangements are causal or merely a consequence of these processes. Two marsupial fa...
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Article
Open AccessAnchoring genome sequence to chromosomes of the central bearded dragon (Pogona vitticeps) enables reconstruction of ancestral squamate macrochromosomes and identifies sequence content of the Z chromosome
Squamates (lizards and snakes) are a speciose lineage of reptiles displaying considerable karyotypic diversity, particularly among lizards. Understanding the evolution of this diversity requires comparison of ...
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Article
Open AccessImmunofluorescent staining reveals hypermethylation of microchromosomes in the central bearded dragon, Pogona vitticeps
Studies of model organisms have demonstrated that DNA cytosine methylation and histone modifications are key regulators of gene expression in biological processes. Comparatively little is known about the prese...
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Article
Open AccessGlobal DNA Methylation patterns on marsupial and devil facial tumour chromosomes
Despite DNA methylation being one of the most widely studied epigenetic modifications in eukaryotes, only a few studies have examined the global methylation status of marsupial chromosomes. The emergence of de...
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Article
Open AccessMarsupials and monotremes possess a novel family of MHC class I genes that is lost from the eutherian lineage
Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I genes are found in the genomes of all jawed vertebrates. The evolution of this gene family is closely tied to the evolution of the vertebrate genome. Family membe...
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Article
Open AccessTracing the evolution of amniote chromosomes
A great deal of diversity in chromosome number and arrangement is observed across the amniote phylogeny. Understanding how this diversity is generated is important for determining the role of chromosomal rearr...
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Article
Open AccessSequence and gene content of a large fragment of a lizard sex chromosome and evaluation of candidate sex differentiating gene R-spondin 1
Scant genomic information from non-avian reptile sex chromosomes is available, and for only a few lizards, several snakes and one turtle species, and it represents only a small fraction of the total sex chromo...
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Article
Open AccessReconstruction of the ancestral marsupial karyotype from comparative gene maps
The increasing number of assembled mammalian genomes makes it possible to compare genome organisation across mammalian lineages and reconstruct chromosomes of the ancestral marsupial and therian (marsupial and...
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Article
Exceptionally high conservation of the MHC class I-related gene, MR1, among mammals
The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I-related gene, MR1, is a non-classical MHC class IA gene and is encoded outside the MHC region. The MR1 is responsible for activation of mucosal-associated invari...
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Article
Open AccessA cross-species comparison of escape from X inactivation in Eutheria: implications for evolution of X chromosome inactivation
Sex chromosome dosage compensation in both eutherian and marsupial mammals is achieved by X chromosome inactivation (XCI)—transcriptional repression that silences one of the two X chromosomes in the somatic ce...
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Article
Erratum to: Genome sequence of an Australian kangaroo, Macropus eugenii, provides insight into the evolution of mammalian reproduction and development
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Article
Open AccessA second-generation anchored genetic linkage map of the tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii)
The tammar wallaby, Macropus eugenii, a small kangaroo used for decades for studies of reproduction and metabolism, is the model Australian marsupial for genome sequencing and genetic investigations. The producti...
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Article
Open AccessA first-generation integrated tammar wallaby map and its use in creating a tammar wallaby first-generation virtual genome map
The limited (2X) coverage of the tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii) genome sequence dataset currently presents a challenge for assembly and anchoring onto chromosomes. To provide a framework for this assembly, it ...
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Article
Open AccessThe tammar wallaby major histocompatibility complex shows evidence of past genomic instability
The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is a group of genes with a variety of roles in the innate and adaptive immune responses. MHC genes form a genetically linked cluster in eutherian mammals, an organiza...
