Why are whales big? Genes behind ocean giants.

Gigantism is prevalent in animals, but it has never reached more extreme levels than in aquatic mammals such as whales, dolphins, and porpoises. A new study by Silva et al. has uncovered five genes underlying this gigantism, a phenotype with important connections to aging and cancer suppression in long-lived animals.

Breathing Air and Living Underwater: Molecular Evolution of Genes Related to Antioxidant Response in Cetaceans and Pinnipeds.

Cetaceans and pinnipeds are lineages of mammals that have independently returned to the aquatic environment, acquiring varying degrees of dependence on it while sharing adaptations for underwater living. Here, we focused on one critical adaptation from both groups, their ability to withstand the ischemia and reperfusion experienced during apnea diving, which can lead to the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and subsequent oxidative damage. Previous studies have shown that cetaceans and pinnipeds possess efficient antioxidant enzymes that protect against ROS. In this study, we investigated the molecular evolution of key antioxidant enzyme genes (CAT, GPX3, GSR, PRDX1, PRDX3, and SOD1) and the ROS-producing gene XDH, in cetaceans and pinnipeds lineages. We used the ratio of non-synonymous (dN) to synonymous (dS) substitutions as a measure to identify signatures of adaptive molecular evolution in these genes within and between the two lineages. Additionally, we performed protein modeling and variant impact analyzes to assess the functional consequences of observed mutations. Our findings revealed distinct selective regimes between aquatic and terrestrial mammals in five of the examined genes, including divergences within cetacean and pinniped lineages, between ancestral and recent lineages and between crowns groups. We identified specific sites under positive selection unique to Cetacea and Pinnipedia, with one site showing evidence of convergent evolution in species known for their long and deep-diving capacities. Notably, many sites under adaptive selection exhibited radical changes in amino acid properties, with some being damaging mutations in human variations, but with no apparent detrimental impacts on aquatic mammals. In conclusion, our study provides insights into the adaptive changes that have occurred in the antioxidant systems of aquatic mammals throughout their evolutionary history. We observed both distinctive features within each group of Cetacea and Pinnipedia and instances of convergence. These findings highlight the dynamic nature of the antioxidant system in response to challenges of the aquatic environment and provide a foundation for further investigations into the molecular mechanisms underlying these adaptations.

Molecular Footprints on Osmoregulation-Related Genes Associated with Freshwater Colonization by Cetaceans and Sirenians.

The genetic basis underlying adaptive physiological mechanisms has been extensively explored in mammals after colonizing the seas. However, independent lineages of aquatic mammals exhibit complex patterns of secondary colonization in freshwater environments. This change in habitat represents new osmotic challenges, and additional changes in key systems, such as the osmoregulatory system, are expected. Here, we studied the selective regime on coding and regulatory regions of 20 genes related to the osmoregulation system in strict aquatic mammals from independent evolutionary lineages, cetaceans, and sirenians, with representatives in marine and freshwater aquatic environments. We identified positive selection signals in genes encoding the protein vasopressin (AVP) in mammalian lineages with secondary colonization in the fluvial environment and in aquaporins for lineages inhabiting the marine and fluvial environments. A greater number of sites with positive selection signals were found for the dolphin species compared to the Amazonian manatee. Only the AQP5 and AVP genes showed selection signals in more than one independent lineage of these mammals. Furthermore, the vasopressin gene tree indicates greater similarity in river dolphin sequences despite the independence of their lineages based on the species tree. Patterns of distribution and enrichment of Transcription Factors in the promoter regions of target genes were analyzed and appear to be phylogenetically conserved among sister species. We found accelerated evolution signs in genes ACE, AQP1, AQP5, AQP7, AVP, NPP4, and NPR1 for the fluvial mammals. Together, these results allow a greater understanding of the molecular bases of the evolution of genes responsible for osmotic control in aquatic mammals.