Undersea mystery: seahorse genetic
secrets unveiled
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[December 15, 2016]
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists have
unlocked some of the genetic secrets of the weird and wondrous seahorse
including its exotic eccentricity of male pregnancy.
Researchers said on Wednesday they sequenced the genome of a seahorse
species for the first time and identified the genetic underpinning for
certain peculiarities in this equine-looking fish group that inhabits
coastal waters around the world.
Seahorses boast a host of oddities. Males, not females, carry and give
birth to babies. They swim upright, not horizontally. They have
horse-like heads, tube-like snouts and no teeth. They have grasping
tails to grip seagrasses and corals to avoid being swept away by
currents.
Their bodies are covered in bony plates. Unlike most fish, they lack
tail and pelvic fins. Their eyes work independently, letting them look
forward and backward simultaneously. And they can change colors to
camouflage themselves.
"They are such iconic animals, one of the examples of the exuberance of
evolution," said evolutionary biologist and genome researcher Axel Meyer
of Germany's University of Konstanz, one of the researchers in the study
published in the journal Nature.

"Their numbers are declining due to habitat destruction and harvest by
humans," added molecular biologist Byrappa Venkatesh of Singapore's
Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).
The researchers analyzed the genome of the Southeast Asian tiger tail
seahorse, which reaches 4 inches (10 cm) long and boasts a
yellow-and-black banded tail. It had the fastest rate of molecular
evolution among any fish whose genome has been studied.
Male seahorses possess a brood pouch. During mating, a female deposits
eggs into the male's pouch. The male fertilizes the eggs internally and
carries them in the pouch until they hatch, releasing the fully formed
offspring into the sea.
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A seahorse swims in a tank at the Underwater World Aquarium in
Pattaya, nearly 145 km (90 miles) east of Bangkok, Thailand, August
20, 2005. REUTERS/Adrees Latif/File Photo

A gene present in other fish that plays a role in egg hatching
underwent duplication in the seahorse and assumed a new role,
helping the advent of the male pouch.
Genes that in people and other animals play a role in tooth
production were mutated in seahorses and lost functionality. Lacking
teeth, seahorses use their snout to suck in plankton and other tiny
prey.
A gene involved in development of pelvic fins in other fish and legs
in humans was absent in seahorses, and they lack these fins.
Instead, seahorses swim by using a small fin on their back that
beats rapidly, with tiny pectoral fins placed near the back of the
head used for steering.
(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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