Background: Crocodilians are one of the oldest extant vertebrate lineages, exhibiting a combination of evolutionary success and morphological resilience that has persisted throughout the history of life on Earth. This ability to endure over such a long geological time span is of great evolutionary importance. Here, we have utilized the combination of genomic and chromosomal data to identify and compare the full catalogs of satellite DNA families (satDNAs, i.e., the satellitomes) of 5 out of the 8 extant Alligatoridae species. As crocodilian genomes reveal ancestral patterns of evolution, by employing this multispecies data collection, we can investigate and assess how satDNA families evolve over time.
Results: Alligators and caimans displayed a small number of satDNA families, ranging from 3 to 13 satDNAs in A. sinensis and C. latirostris, respectively. Together with little variation both within and between species it highlighted long-term conservation of satDNA elements throughout evolution. Furthermore, we traced the origin of the ancestral forms of all satDNAs belonging to the common ancestor of Caimaninae and Alligatorinae. Fluorescence in situ experiments showed distinct hybridization patterns for identical orthologous satDNAs, indicating their dynamic genomic placement.
Conclusions: Alligators and caimans possess one of the smallest satDNA libraries ever reported, comprising only four sets of satDNAs that are shared by all species. Besides, our findings indicated limited intraspecific variation in satellite DNA, suggesting that the majority of new satellite sequences likely evolved from pre-existing ones.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12915-024-01847-8 | DOI Listing |
PLoS One
January 2025
Faculty of Veterinary Science, The Monitoring and Surveillance Center for Zoonotic Diseases in Wildlife and Exotic Animals, Mahidol University, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand.
Crocodilians are susceptible to a range of virus infection including influenza A virus (IAV). However, little is known about the ecology and epidemiology of IAV in crocodile species. This study aimed to investigate IAV infection in farmed Siamese crocodiles in central Thailand.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
December 2024
School of Mathematics and Statistics, Guizhou University, Guiyang, 550025, China.
Nature-inspired bionic algorithms have become one of the most fascinating techniques in computational intelligence research, and have shown great potential in real-world challenging problems for their simplicity and flexibility. This paper proposes a novel nature-inspired algorithm, called the crocodile optimization algorithm (COA), which mimics the hunting strategies of crocodiles. In COA, the hunting behavior of crocodiles includes premeditation and waiting hunting.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Exp Biol
December 2024
Department of Biological Sciences, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, USA.
Bone loading is a crucial factor that constrains locomotor capacities of terrestrial tetrapods. To date, limb bone strains and stresses have been studied across various animals, with a primary emphasis on consistent bone loading in mammals of different sizes and variations in loading regimes across different clades and limb postures. However, the relationships between body size, limb posture and limb bone loading remain unclear in animals with non-parasagittally moving limbs, limiting our understanding of the evolution of limb functions in tetrapods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Zoo Wildl Med
December 2024
Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
American alligators () are an important apex predator of semiaquatic habitats of the southern United States. Commercial alligator farming has grown in the last several decades, leading to a need to understand the health conditions that affect this species to ensure appropriate management and welfare. The aims of this study were 1) to establish and describe normative data including results of common ophthalmic diagnostic tests and conjunctival flora, 2) document ocular pathology in this population, and 3) assess the effect of topical rocuronium bromide and 10% phenylephrine for facilitating pharmacologic mydriasis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Morphol
January 2025
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, University Avenue Cape Town, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa.
Skeletochronology and growth dynamics are intensively investigated in vertebrate osteohistology. These techniques are particularly important for interpreting the life history of long-lived species, such as crocodilians. To understand the longevity, growth dynamics, sexual maturity, and sexual dimorphism of caimans we studied an almost complete ontogenetic series of captive and wild specimens of Caiman latirostris from different localities of Argentina.
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