@article{56dfe21ae7d4489b80f89bc8e033dcc3,
title = "The Novel Evolution of the Sperm Whale Genome",
abstract = "The sperm whale, made famous by Moby Dick, is one of the most fascinating of all ocean-dwelling species given their unique life history, novel physiological adaptations to hunting squid at extreme ocean depths, and their position as one of the earliest branching toothed whales (Odontoceti). We assembled the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) genome and resequenced individuals from multiple ocean basins to identify new candidate genes for adaptation to an aquatic environment and infer demographic history. Genes crucial for skin integrity appeared to be particularly important in both the sperm whale and other cetaceans. We also find sperm whales experienced a steep population decline during the early Pleistocene epoch. These genomic data add new comparative insight into the evolution of whales.",
keywords = "cetaceans, genome, sperm whale",
author = "Warren, {Wesley C.} and Lukas Kuderna and Alana Alexander and Julian Catchen and P{\'e}rez-Silva, {Jos{\'e} G.} and Carlos L{\'o}pez-Ot{\'i}n and V{\'i}ctor Quesada and Patrick Minx and Chad Tomlinson and Montague, {Michael J.} and Farias, {Fabiana H.G.} and Walter, {Ronald B.} and Tomas Marques-Bonet and Travis Glenn and Kieran, {Troy J.} and Wise, {Sandra S.} and Wise, {John Pierce} and Waterhouse, {Robert M.}",
note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by the National Institute of Health grant 2R24OD011198-04A1 (W.C.W., PI); National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences [ES016893 (J.W. Sr, PI)]; Army Research Office [W911NF-09-1-0296 (J.W. Sr, PI)]; Swiss National Science Foundation grant PP00P3_170664 (R.M.W.); Ministerio of Economia and Competitividad (Spain); and European Union (ERC-Advanced Grant DeAge) (C.L.-O., PI); the Campbell Foundation; the Ocean Foundation; Ocean Alliance; and the many individual and anonymous Wise Laboratory donors. The authors declare no competing financial interests. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the National Institutes of Health, the Army Research Office or the Department of Defense. Work was conducted under National Marine Fisheries Service permit #1008-1637-03 (J.W. Sr, PI) and permit #751-1614 (I.K., PI). We thank Kyung Kim for computational support. We would like to thank Catherine Wise, James Wise, Chris Gianios, and all the Wise Laboratory/Odyssey science team volunteers for their help with technical support, whale spotting and sample collection. We thank Iain Kerr, Roger Payne, Bob Wallace, Derek Walker, and all of the Odyssey boat crew for their help with sample collection and logistics. We thank C. Scott Baker for comments on this manuscript. Finally, we thank all the volunteers who supported us in this project. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution.",
year = "2017",
month = dec,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1093/gbe/evx187",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "9",
pages = "3260--3264",
journal = "Genome biology and evolution",
issn = "1759-6653",
publisher = "Oxford University Press",
number = "12",
}