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      https://www.ias.ac.in/article/fulltext/jbsc/040/05/0891-0907

    • Keywords

       

      Asian elephant; comparative genomics; gene prediction; transcriptome

    • Abstract

       

      The Asian elephant Elephas maximus and the African elephant Loxodonta africana that diverged 5-7 million years ago exhibit differences in their physiology, behaviour and morphology. A comparative genomics approach would be useful and necessary for evolutionary and functional genetic studies of elephants. We performed sequencing of E. maximus and map to L. africana at ∼ 15X coverage. Through comparative sequence analyses, we have identified Asian elephant specific homozygous, non-synonymous single nucleotide variants (SNVs) that map to 1514 protein coding genes, many of which are involved in olfaction. We also present the first report of a high-coverage transcriptome sequence in E. maximus from peripheral blood lymphocytes. We have identified 103 novel protein coding transcripts and 66-long non-coding (Inc)RNAs. We also report the presence of 181 protein domains unique to elephants when compared to other Afrotheria species. Each of these findings can be further investigated to gain a better understanding of functional differences unique to elephant species, as well as those unique to elephantids in comparison with other mammals. This work therefore provides a valuable resource to explore the immense research potential of comparative analyses of transcriptome and genome sequences in the Asian elephant.

    • Author Affiliations

       

      Puli Chandramouli Reddy1 Ishani Sinha2 Ashwin Kelkar1 Farhat Habib1 Saurabh J Pradhan1 Raman Sukumar2 Sanjeev Galande1

      1. Centre of Excellence in Epigenetics, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pashan, Pune 411 008, India
      2. Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012, India
    • Dates

       
    • Supplementary Material

       
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