Comparison with other vertebrate genomes revealed that the main genes implicated in the formation and activity of gastric juice have been lost in platypus. Results: We show that several genes implicated in food digestion in the stomach have been deleted or inactivated in platypus. The platypus genome sequence provides a unique opportunity to illuminate some aspects of the biology and evolution of these animals. This is an open access article distributed 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.īackground: The duck-billed platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) belongs to the mammalian subclass Prototheria, which diverged from the Theria line early in mammalian evolution. Received: 16 December 2007 Revised: 4 April 2008 Accepted: The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at ^Discipline of Genetics, School of Molecular & Biomedical Science, The University of Adelaide, 5005 South Australia, Adelaide, Australia.

+Genome Sequencing Center, Washington University School of Medicine, Campus Box 8501, 4444 Forest Park Avenue, St. Gonzalo R Ordonez*, LaDeana W Hillier+, Wesley C Warren+, Frank Grutzner*, Carlos Lopez-Otln* and Xose S Puente*Īddresses: 'Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular, Facultad de Medicina, Instituto Universitario de Oncología, Universidad de Oviedo, C/Fernando Bongera s/n, 33006 Oviedo, Spain. Loss of genes implicated in gastric function during platypus evolution

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