The genome of a Gondwanan mammal.
Australia is thought of as the home of marsupials, but South America has 60 or so species of these interesting mammals. The genome of one of these, the South American grey short-tailed opossum, Monodelphis domestica, has just been sequenced and published in June.1 The high quality 6x coverage is the first marsupial genome completed, pipping the 2x coverage of the Australian tammar wallaby at the post by half a year. The opossum genome has an unusual structure with fewer chromosomes than the human genome (9 pairs versus 23 pairs) but a longer total length (3.4 billion versus 3 billion bases). The opossum autosomes, like those of all marsupials, are extremely large but, in contrast, the X chromosome is only 76 Mb long. The opossum genome has turned up several surprises and provided critical new information on the evolution of mammalian genomes.
Renfree
Marilyn B
MB
ARC Centre of Excellence for Kangaroo Genomics, Department of Zoology, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia. m.renfree@unimelb.edu.au
D000818:Animals; D018949:Antigens, CD1 / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D001482:Base Composition; D001483:Base Sequence; D015704:CD4 Antigens / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D016827:CD8 Antigens / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D033481:Chromosomes, Mammalian / Q000737:chemistry; D005260:Female; D016678:Genome; D020084:Long Interspersed Nucleotide Elements; D008285:Major Histocompatibility Complex / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D008322:Mammals / Q000235:genetics*; D008394:Marsupialia / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D048309:Monodelphis / Q000235:genetics; D011544:Pseudogenes / Q000235:genetics; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D020086:Short Interspersed Nucleotide Elements; D013020:South America; D013045:Species Specificity; D020080:Tandem Repeat Sequences; D018417:Th1 Cells / Q000276:immunology; D018418:Th2 Cells / Q000276:immunology; D014960:X Chromosome / Q000737:chemistry; D049951:X Chromosome Inactivation
D018949:Antigens, CD1; D015704:CD4 Antigens; D016827:CD8 Antigens; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell