Int
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l J. Mol. Zoo., 2013, Vol.3, No.5, 17
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19
http://ijmz.sophiapublisher.com
17
A Review Open Access
Molecular Profile of Treeshrew, a Promising Experimental Animal for Medical
Research
Paul A. Young
Animal Group, Saunders Institute at BC, Canada
Corresponding authors email:
Paul.A.Young@SaundersInstitute.com
;
Int'l J. Mol. Zoo., 2013, Vol.3, No.5 doi: 10.5376/ijmz.2013.03.0005
Received: 15 Mar., 2013
Accepted: 25 Mar., 2013
Published: 3 Apr., 2013
Copyright: © 2013, Young. This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article:
Young, 2013, Molecular Profile of Treeshrew, a Promising Experimental Animal for Medical Research, Int'l J. Mol. Zoo., Vol.3, No.5, 17
-
19
(
doi:10.5376/
ijmz.2013. 03.0005)
Abstract
Scandentia
order in
Euarchontoglires
consists of two families,
Tupaiidae
and
Ptilocercidae
,
including five genera that
contain 20 species. Genus
Tupaia
having 15 species is the largest genus in the order
Scandentia
.
Most species in
Scandentia
have a
karyotype 2
n
=52–68, therein, the well-known common treeshrew (
Tupaia glis
)
has 2n=60; Northern treeshrew (
Tupaia belangeri
chinensis
,
has 2n=62; pygmy treeshrew (
Tupaia minor
)
has 2n=66 and mountain treeshrew (
Tupaia montana
)
has 2n=68, whereas
only one species Mindanao treeshrew (
Urogaleeveretti
)
has 2
n
=44. The whole genome Northern treeshrew (
Tupaia belangeri
chinensis
)
was sequenced and assembled recently. The size of a 2.86 GB genome was assembled that contains approximately 22 063
protein coding genes very closer to human gene number, and contains 35% of the repeat important element, and 14% of the
dominated transposeon in the treeshrew genome. The functional annotation of some important genes and gene families will facilitate
treeshrew becoming a promising experimental animal for medicine evaluation alternative to nonhuman primates.
Keywords
Treeshrew; Whole genome; Karyotype;
Scandentia
;
Tupaia
;
Chinese treeshrew (
Tupaia belangeri chinensis
)
Introduction
The treeshrews are a kind of primitive small mammals
belonging to Order
Scandentia
in
Euarchonto
glires
native to the tropical regions of Southeast and South
Asia. Two families,
Tupaiidae
and
Ptilocercidae
make
up of
Scandentia
order, which consist of five genera,
Anathana
,
Dendrogale
,
Tupaia
,
Urogale
and
ptilocercus
,
including 20 species.
Genus
Tupaia
having 15 species
is the largest genus in the order
Scandentia
(
Young, 2011).
With the completion of the whole genome sequencing
of Northern treeshrew (
Tupaia belangeri chinensis
),
Taxonomic status of treeshrews has been confirmed at
the level of molecular genetics (Fan et al., 2013;
Young, 2013
).
1
Chromosome Information of Treeshrews
Most species in
Scandentia
have a karyotype
2
n=52–68, with only one species
Mindanao
treeshrew
(
Urogaleeveretti
)
having 2n=44 (Chu and Bender, 1962
).
Previous studies had shown: Palawan treeshrew (
Tupaia
palawanensis
)
has a karyotype 2n=52 (Bender and
Chu, 1963; Arrighi et al., 1969); Both of common
treeshrew (
Tupaia glis
)
and long-footed treeshrew
(
Tupaia longipes
)
have 2n=60 (Bender and Chu, 1963;
Hsu and Johnson, 1963; Arrighi et al., 1969); the
sub-species of the northern treeshrew (
Tupaia belangeri
),
chinensis
,
tonquinia
and
yaoshanensis
,
have the number
of chromosomes 2n=62 (Liu et al., 1989); pygmy treeshrew
(
Tupaia minor
)
has 2n=66 (Arrighi et al., 1969); mountain
treeshrew (
Tupaia montana
)
has 2n=68 (Arrighi et al., 1969;
Lisco et al., 1973).
2
General Features of Chinese Treeshrew
Genome
The latest whole genome sequencing data of Northern
treeshrew (
Tupaia belangeri chinensis
)
published
online in the internationally renowned academic
journal "Nature Communications" on February 5th, 2013,
the article entitled "Genome of the Chinese Tree Shrew".
Yao and his research groups sequenced and assembled
the whole genome of a male northern treeshrew
(
Tupaia belangeri chinensis
)
from Kun Ming of Yu
Nan Province, Southwest of China. Total coverage was up
to 79x
high-quality Illumina reads
to assemble the
size of a genome 2.86 GB (Table 1), close to
the
3.2
Gb genome size estimated from the K-mer
calculation
.
Treeshrew genome contains approximately
22 063
protein coding genes that is closer to human gene
number, and contains 35% of the repeat important
element, and 14% of the dominated transposon.