Marsupial Genetics and Genomics
Marsupials belong to the Class Mammalia, sharing some features with other mammals, yet they also possess many unique features. It is their differences from the more traditionally studied mammals, such as mice and humans, that is of greatest value to compa
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Janine E. Deakin · Paul D. Waters · Jennifer A. Marshall Graves Editors
Marsupial Genetics and Genomics
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Editors Janine E. Deakin ARC Centre of Excellence for Kangaroo Genomics Evolution, Ecology and Genetics The Australian National University Research School of Biology Building 46 0200 Canberra ACT Australia [email protected]
Paul D. Waters ARC Centre of Excellence for Kangaroo Genomics Evolution, Ecology and Genetics The Australian National University Research School of Biology Building 46 0200 Canberra ACT Australia
Jennifer A. Marshall Graves ARC Centre of Excellence for Kangaroo Genomics Evolution, Ecology and Genetics The Australian National University Research School of Biology Building 46 0200 Canberra ACT Australia
ISBN 978-90-481-9022-5 e-ISBN 978-90-481-9023-2 DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-9023-2 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2010928910 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface
Marsupials are appealing subjects for genetics and genomics studies because of their unique phylogenetic position, and their unique biology, as well as their tractable genome. In the vertebrate phylogeny they are placed in Class Mammalia, sharing features common to all mammals such as possessing fur, feeding their young with milk produced by mammary glands, and being warm blooded homeotherms. Marsupials last shared a common ancestor with eutherian mammals ∼150 million years ago (MYA), thereby bridging the gap between the divergence of Sauropsida (birds/reptiles) from the mammalian ancestor (350 MYA), and the eutherian radiation (105 MYA). As the most distantly related therian mammals to humans, they have special value for comparative genetic studies, and their inclusion in comparative genomic studies has provided many surprising findings in genome and gene evolution. Marsupials are characterized especially by their reproductive system, which evolved to fit them for a life in a harsh continent with uncertain food supplies. Unlike eutherian (“placental”) mammals, they give birth to altricial young, and most of their development occurs outside the protective environment of the uterus. This is usually in the confines of a pouch (hence their name, from “marsupium”, meaning pouch); however, in many species the teats are arrayed in folds of the skin. Marsupial genetics is not new. The large size of their chromosomes and their low diploid number has made them easy to study at the cytogenetic level and, in fact, they were amongst the first mammalian chromosomes to be
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