TY - JOUR T1 - Raptor genomes reveal evolutionary signatures of predatory and nocturnal lifestyles JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/598821 SP - 598821 AU - Yun Sung Cho AU - JeHoon Jun AU - Jung A Kim AU - Hak-Min Kim AU - Oksung Chung AU - Seung-Gu Kang AU - Jin-Young Park AU - Hwa-Jung Kim AU - Sunghyun Kim AU - Hee-Jong Kim AU - Jin-ho Jang AU - Ki-Jeong Na AU - Jeongho Kim AU - Seung Gu Park AU - Hwang-Yeol Lee AU - Andrea Manica AU - David P. Mindell AU - Jérôme Fuchs AU - Jeremy S. Edwards AU - Jessica A. Weber AU - Christopher C. Witt AU - Joo-Hong Yeo AU - Soonok Kim AU - Jong Bhak Y1 - 2019/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/04/05/598821.abstract N2 - Background Birds of prey (raptors) are dominant apex predators in terrestrial communities, with hawks (Accipitriformes) and falcons (Falconiformes) hunting by day, and owls (Strigiformes) hunting by night.Results Here, we report new genomes and transcriptomes for 20 species of birds, including 16 species of birds of prey, and high-quality reference genomes for the Eurasian eagle-owl (Bubo bubo), oriental scops-owl (Otus sunia), eastern buzzard (Buteo japonicus), and common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus). Our extensive genomic analysis and comparisons with non-raptor genomes identified common molecular signatures that underpin anatomical structure and sensory, muscle, circulatory, and respiratory systems related to a predatory lifestyle. Compared with diurnal birds, owls exhibit striking adaptations to the nocturnal environment, including functional trade-offs in the sensory systems (e.g., loss of color vision genes and selection for enhancement of nocturnal vision and other sensory systems) that are probably convergent with other nocturnal avian orders. Additionally, we found that a suite of genes associated with vision and circadian rhythm were differentially expressed between nocturnal and diurnal raptors, indicating adaptive expression change during the transition to nocturnality.Conclusions Overall, raptor genomes showed genomic signatures associated with the origin and maintenance of several specialized physiological and morphological features essential to be apex predators.PSGPositively selected geneGC3Guanine-Cytosine at the third codon positionHCRHighly conserved genomic regionOROlfactory receptor ER -