The hearing gene Prestin unites echolocating bats and whales.
Echolocation is a sensory mechanism for locating, ranging and identifying objects which involves the emission of calls into the environment and listening to the echoes returning from objects [1]. Only microbats and toothed whales have acquired sophisticated echolocation, indispensable for their orientation and foraging [1]. Although the bat and whale biosonars originated independently and differ substantially in many aspects [2], we here report the surprising finding that the bottlenose dolphin, a toothed whale, is clustered with microbats in the gene tree constructed using protein sequences encoded by the hearing gene Prestin.
Li
Ying
Y
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
Liu
Zhen
Z
Shi
Peng
P
Zhang
Jianzhi
J
D000818:Animals; D027321:Anion Transport Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002685:Chiroptera / Q000235:genetics*; D004455:Echolocation; D006309:Hearing / Q000235:genetics*; D014907:Whales / Q000235:genetics*
D027321:Anion Transport Proteins