REPTILIAN VNO TRANSCRIPTOME

WARNING: THERE IS A VERSION 2.0 OF THE REPTILIAN-TRANSCRIPTOMES DATABASE AVAILABLE HERE

Why the VNO ?

The vomeronasal organ (VNO) is an olfactory sensory structure that detects pheromones and environmental cues. It consists of sensory neurons that express several evolutionarily unrelated groups of transmembrane chemoreceptors. The vomeronasal receptor V1R and V2R repertoires are the predominant receptors and are believed to detect airborne and water-soluble molecules, respectively. It has been suggested that the shift in habitat of early tetrapods from water to land is reflected by an increase in the ratio of V1R/V2R genes. A large group of terrestrial vertebrates, snakes, are missing from this analysis. Snakes heavily depend on the VNO for prey trailing, courtship, and shelter selection and the organ is highly developed and associated with a sophisticated tongue delivery system. However, the vomeronasal receptor repertoire of snakes had not been characterized so far.

We have used  RNA-seq and RNA in-situ hybridization to study the  diversity, evolution, and expression pattern of the corn snake vomeronasal receptor repertoires. Our analyses indicate that snakes retain an extremely limited number of V1R genes. In contrast, we find a very large number of V2R genes, including multiple lineages of reptile-specific and snake-specific expansions.

Our results do not support the hypothesis that the shift to a vomeronasal receptor repertoire dominated by V1Rs in mammals reflects the evolutionary transition of early tetrapods from water to land. This study sheds light on the evolutionary dynamics of the vomeronasal receptor families in vertebrates and reveals how mammals and Sauropsida reptiles differentially adapted the same ancestral vomeronasal repertoire to succeed in a terrestrial environment.

1. ➡Download all VNO transcriptome data.
   

2. ➡Download “LANE runner” (and its user manual) that provides a user-friendly interface for:
   

3. ✓BLASTing multiple sequences against selected databases with different parameters, and
   

4. ✓Automatically building consensus sequences.
   

Publications

1. ✓Brykczynska U., Tzika A.C., Rodriguez I. & M. C. Milinkovitch
   Contrasted evolution of the vomeronasal receptor repertoires in Mammals and Squamate reptiles
   Genome Biology & Evolution 5: 389-401 (2013)
   

2. Open Access
   

3. Download the Supplementary Materials file
   

Related publications

1. ✓Tzika A.C., Helaers R., Schramm G. & M. C. Milinkovitch
   Reptilian-transcriptome v1.0, a glimpse in the brain transcriptome of five divergent Sauropsida lineages and the phylogenetic position of turtles
   EvoDevo 2011, 2: 19
   

2. Open Access
   

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