Comparative and demographic analysis of orangutan genomes

• Published in: Nature (London) Vol. 469; no. 7331; pp. 529 - 533
• Main Authors: Locke, Devin P., Hillier, LaDeana W., Warren, Wesley C., Worley, Kim C., Nazareth, Lynne V., Muzny, Donna M., Yang, Shiaw-Pyng, Wang, Zhengyuan, Chinwalla, Asif T., Minx, Pat, Mitreva, Makedonka, Cook, Lisa, Delehaunty, Kim D., Fronick, Catrina, Schmidt, Heather, Fulton, Lucinda A., Fulton, Robert S., Nelson, Joanne O., Magrini, Vincent, Pohl, Craig, Graves, Tina A., Markovic, Chris, Cree, Andy, Dinh, Huyen H., Hume, Jennifer, Kovar, Christie L., Fowler, Gerald R., Lunter, Gerton, Meader, Stephen, Heger, Andreas, Ponting, Chris P., Marques-Bonet, Tomas, Alkan, Can, Chen, Lin, Cheng, Ze, Kidd, Jeffrey M., Eichler, Evan E., White, Simon, Searle, Stephen, Vilella, Albert J., Chen, Yuan, Flicek, Paul, Ma, Jian, Raney, Brian, Suh, Bernard, Burhans, Richard, Herrero, Javier, Haussler, David, Faria, Rui, Fernando, Olga, Darré, Fleur, Farré, Domènec, Gazave, Elodie, Oliva, Meritxell, Navarro, Arcadi, Roberto, Roberta, Capozzi, Oronzo, Archidiacono, Nicoletta, Valle, Giuliano Della, Purgato, Stefania, Rocchi, Mariano, Konkel, Miriam K., Walker, Jerilyn A., Ullmer, Brygg, Batzer, Mark A., Smit, Arian F. A., Hubley, Robert, Casola, Claudio, Schrider, Daniel R., Hahn, Matthew W., Quesada, Victor, Puente, Xose S., Ordoñez, Gonzalo R., López-Otín, Carlos, Vinar, Tomas, Brejova, Brona, Ratan, Aakrosh, Harris, Robert S., Miller, Webb, Kosiol, Carolin, Lawson, Heather A., Taliwal, Vikas, Martins, André L., Siepel, Adam, RoyChoudhury, Arindam, Ma, Xin, Degenhardt, Jeremiah, Bustamante, Carlos D., Gutenkunst, Ryan N., Mailund, Thomas, Dutheil, Julien Y., Hobolth, Asger, Schierup, Mikkel H., Chemnick, Leona, Ryder, Oliver A., Yoshinaga, Yuko, de Jong, Pieter J., Weinstock, George M., Rogers, Jeffrey, Mardis, Elaine R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 27.01.2011
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/nature09687

“Orangutan” is derived from the Malay term “man of the forest” and aptly describes the Southeast Asian great apes native to Sumatra and Borneo. The orangutan species, Pongo abelii (Sumatran) and Pongo pygmaeus (Bornean), are the most phylogenetically distant great apes from humans, thereby providing an informative perspective on hominid evolution. Here we present a Sumatran orangutan draft genome assembly and short read sequence data from five Sumatran and five Bornean orangutan genomes. Our analyses reveal that, compared to other primates, the orangutan genome has many unique features. Structural evolution of the orangutan genome has proceeded much more slowly than other great apes, evidenced by fewer rearrangements, less segmental duplication, a lower rate of gene family turnover and surprisingly quiescent Alu repeats, which have played a major role in restructuring other primate genomes. We also describe the first primate polymorphic neocentromere, found in both Pongo species, emphasizing the gradual evolution of orangutan genome structure. Orangutans have extremely low energy usage for a eutherian mammal 1 , far lower than their hominid relatives. Adding their genome to the repertoire of sequenced primates illuminates new signals of positive selection in several pathways including glycolipid metabolism. From the population perspective, both Pongo species are deeply diverse; however, Sumatran individuals possess greater diversity than their Bornean counterparts, and more species-specific variation. Our estimate of Bornean/Sumatran speciation time, 400k years ago (ya), is more recent than most previous studies and underscores the complexity of the orangutan speciation process. Despite a smaller modern census population size, the Sumatran effective population size ( N e ) expanded exponentially relative to the ancestral N e after the split, while Bornean N e declined over the same period. Overall, the resources and analyses presented here offer new opportunities in evolutionary genomics, insights into hominid biology, and an extensive database of variation for conservation efforts.