The African coelacanth genome provides insights into tetrapod evolution

The discovery of a living coelacanth specimen in 1938 was remarkable, as this lineage of lobe-finned fish was thought to have become extinct 70 million years ago. The modern coelacanth looks remarkably similar to many of its ancient relatives, and its evolutionary proximity to our own fish ancestors provides a glimpse of the fish that first walked on land. Here we report the genome sequence of the African coelacanth, Latimeria chalumnae. Through a phylogenomic analysis, we conclude that the lungfish, and not the coelacanth, is the closest living relative of tetrapods. Coelacanth protein-coding genes are significantly more slowly evolving than those of tetrapods, unlike other genomic features. Analyses of…

• MI
  Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• HU
  Harvard University
• BI
  Broad Institute
• ES
  European Science Foundation
• BA
  Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

  Awards: BBS/E/T/000PR5885, BBS/E/T/000PR6193
• NH
  National Human Genome Research Institute