NIH supports research on fish models for human disease because teleost fish, including zebrafish, allow the rapid and efficient use of resources to explore problems fundamental to the development and function of animals with backbones. This proposal describes resources to facilitate the translation of functional information from teleost medical models to human biology. Most teleost genes have a one-to-one relationship with human genes, but due to a genome duplication event, teleosts have two copies of many human genes, especially genes controlling developmental and physiological mechanisms. Teleost duplicates of human genes have often shared between them the functions of the corresponding mammalian single-copy gene (subfunctionalization) and have often evolved new functions (neofunctionalization) more rapidly than singletons. The problem is: Which functions of teleost genes are due to inheritance from the last common human/fish ancestor and which are due to evolution since the teleost genome duplication? Solutions to this problem are important because the connectivity of teleost and human genomes is crucial for translating teleost research to human biology. The most recently diverged unduplicated ray-fin fish provides a bridge to connect the duplicated teleost genome to the unduplicated human genome. Spotted gar (Lepisosteus oculatus) occupies an unduplicated recent outgroup to the teleost lineage and is a convenient system for genomic, gene expression, and gene function analyses.
Aim 1 is to construct a high-resolution genetic linkage map for spotted gar using an innovative next-generation sequence-based genotyping methodology.
Aim 2 is to construct a resource of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) for gar and to develop bioinformatics that assign ESTs to thousands of markers on the linkage map.
Aim 3 is to construct a resource of tiled BACs (bacterial artificial chromosomes) using a novel method that includes all markers on the genetic linkage map, and to develop bioinformatics to associate BACs to individual ESTs.
Aim 4 is to develop bioinformatic tools to integrate genetic markers, ESTs, and tiled clones into conserved synteny maps for comparative genomics of humans and teleosts.
Aim 5 is to test predictions of the hypotheses of subfunctionalization and neofunctionalization as mechanisms for the functional evolution of gene duplicates by using gar sequences to detect non-coding elements that function in transgenic zebrafish. Significance: Achieving these aims will provide resources that facilitate the connectivity of teleost and human genomes, thereby translating teleost biology to human biomedicine. Comparative maps of gar, teleost and human genomes focus attention on regions of the gar genome that contain singletons corresponding to duplicated biomedical genes in teleosts and to discover the functions of these unduplicated genes. Teleost researchers can exploit this knowledge to distinguish ancestral from derived gene structure and function, a critical question for teleost-to-human translational research.

Public Health Relevance

Fish biomedical models allow rapid and efficient analysis of human disease mechanisms. Most model fish species, however, possess a duplicated genome that often disrupts the one-to-one relationship between human and fish genes. Proposed work will provide genomic resources for an unduplicated fish genome that will better link model fish and human genomes and thus will more effectively translate research on fish biomedical models to human health and disease.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Center for Research Resources (NCRR)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
2R01RR020833-05
Application #
7987512
Study Section
Genetic Variation and Evolution Study Section (GVE)
Program Officer
Chang, Michael
Project Start
2005-07-18
Project End
2015-06-30
Budget Start
2010-09-01
Budget End
2011-06-30
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2010
Total Cost
$661,527
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Oregon
Department
Other Basic Sciences
Type
Organized Research Units
DUNS #
948117312
City
Eugene
State
OR
Country
United States
Zip Code
97403
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Cal, Laura; MegÍas, Manuel; Cerdá-Reverter, José Miguel et al. (2017) BAC Recombineering of the Agouti Loci from Spotted Gar and Zebrafish Reveals the Evolutionary Ancestry of Dorsal-Ventral Pigment Asymmetry in Fish. J Exp Zool B Mol Dev Evol 328:697-708
Sullivan, Con; Lage, Christopher R; Yoder, Jeffrey A et al. (2017) Evolutionary divergence of the vertebrate TNFAIP8 gene family: Applying the spotted gar orthology bridge to understand ohnolog loss in teleosts. PLoS One 12:e0179517
Suarez-Bregua, Paula; Torres-Nuñez, Eva; Saxena, Ankur et al. (2017) Pth4, an ancient parathyroid hormone lost in eutherian mammals, reveals a new brain-to-bone signaling pathway. FASEB J 31:569-583
Postlethwait, John H; Yan, Yi-Lin; Desvignes, Thomas et al. (2016) Embryogenesis and early skeletogenesis in the antarctic bullhead notothen, Notothenia coriiceps. Dev Dyn 245:1066-1080
Braasch, Ingo; Gehrke, Andrew R; Smith, Jeramiah J et al. (2016) The spotted gar genome illuminates vertebrate evolution and facilitates human-teleost comparisons. Nat Genet 48:427-37
Braasch, Ingo; Peterson, Samuel M; Desvignes, Thomas et al. (2015) A new model army: Emerging fish models to study the genomics of vertebrate Evo-Devo. J Exp Zool B Mol Dev Evol 324:316-41
Desvignes, T; Batzel, P; Berezikov, E et al. (2015) miRNA Nomenclature: A View Incorporating Genetic Origins, Biosynthetic Pathways, and Sequence Variants. Trends Genet 31:613-626
Gehrke, Andrew R; Schneider, Igor; de la Calle-Mustienes, Elisa et al. (2015) Deep conservation of wrist and digit enhancers in fish. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 112:803-8
McCluskey, Braedan M; Postlethwait, John H (2015) Phylogeny of zebrafish, a ""model species,"" within Danio, a ""model genus"". Mol Biol Evol 32:635-52

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