PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Christoffer Rozenfeld
AU  - Jose Blanca
AU  - Victor Gallego
AU  - Víctor García-Carpintero
AU  - Juan Germán Herranz-Jusdado
AU  - Luz Pérez
AU  - Juan F. Asturiano
AU  - Joaquín Cañizares
AU  - David S. Peñaranda
TI  - Large scale gene duplication affected the European eel (<em>Anguilla anguilla</em>) after the 3R teleost duplication
AID  - 10.1101/232918
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 232918
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/12/12/232918.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/12/12/232918.full
AB  - Genomic scale duplication of genes generates raw genetic material, which may facilitate new adaptations for the organism. Previous studies on eels have reported specific gene duplications, however a species-specific large-scale gene duplication has never before been proposed. In this study, we have assembled a de novo European eel transcriptome and the data show more than a thousand gene duplications that happened, according to a 4dTv analysis, after the teleost specific 3R whole genome duplication (WGD). The European eel has a complex and peculiar life cycle, which involves extensive migration, drastic habitat changes and metamorphoses, all of which could have been facilitated by the genes derived from this large-scale gene duplication.Of the paralogs created, those with a lower genetic distance are mostly found in tandem repeats, indicating that they are young segmental duplications. The older eel paralogs showed a different pattern, with more extensive synteny suggesting that a Whole Genome Duplication (WGD) event may have happened in the eel lineage. Furthermore, an enrichment analysis of eel specific paralogs further revealed GO-terms typically enriched after a WGD. Thus, this study, to the best of our knowledge, is the first to present evidence indicating an Anguillidae family specific large-scale gene duplication, which may include a 4R WGD.