Expressed Vomeronasal Type-1 Receptors (V1rs) in Bats Uncover Conserved Sequences Underlying Social Chemical Signaling.

摘要: In mammals, social and reproductive behaviors are mediated by chemical cues encoded hyperdiverse families of receptors expressed in the vomeronasal organ. Between species, number intact can vary orders magnitude. However, evolutionary processes behind variation receptor number, its link to fitness-related not well understood. From transcriptomes, we discovered first evidence type-1 (V1r) genes bats, tested whether putatively functional bat were orthologous those related taxa, or bats have evolved novel receptors. Instead lineage-specific duplications, found that V1rs show high levels orthology their relatives, under comparative purifying selection as non-bats. Despite widespread organ loss V1r copies been retained for >65 million years. The highly conserved nature challenges our current understanding mammalian function suggests roles other than conspecific recognition mating initiation behavior.