Affiliations 

  • 1 Genome Informatics Research Laboratory, High Impact Research (HIR) Building, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 2 National Zoological Park, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Washington, DC 20008, USA
  • 3 CIIMAR/CIMAR, Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research, University of Porto, Rua dos Bragas, 177, 4050-123 Porto, Portugal
  • 4 Ex-Situ Conservation Division, Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) Peninsular Malaysia, KM 10, Jalan Cheras, 56100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 5 Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48201, USA
  • 6 McDonnell Genome Institute, Washington University, St Louis, MO 63108, USA
  • 7 Theodosius Dobzhansky Center for Genome Bioinformatics St. Petersburg State University St. Petersburg, 199004, Russia
Sci Rep, 2016 09 13;6:28199.
PMID: 27618997 DOI: 10.1038/srep28199

Abstract

Pangolins are scale-covered mammals, containing eight endangered species. Maintaining pangolins in captivity is a significant challenge, in part because little is known about their genetics. Here we provide the first large-scale sequencing of the critically endangered Manis javanica transcriptomes from eight different organs using Illumina HiSeq technology, yielding ~75 Giga bases and 89,754 unigenes. We found some unigenes involved in the insect hormone biosynthesis pathway and also 747 lipids metabolism-related unigenes that may be insightful to understand the lipid metabolism system in pangolins. Comparative analysis between M. javanica and other mammals revealed many pangolin-specific genes significantly over-represented in stress-related processes, cell proliferation and external stimulus, probably reflecting the traits and adaptations of the analyzed pregnant female M. javanica. Our study provides an invaluable resource for future functional works that may be highly relevant for the conservation of pangolins.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.