Reunion of Australasian possums by shared SINE insertions

Although first posited to be of a single origin, the two subfamilies of Phalangeriform marsupial possums (Phalangeroidea: cuscuses and brushtail possums and Petauroidea: possums and gliders) have long been considered, based on multiple sequencing studies, to have evolved from two separate origins. We reinvestigated these relationships by screening ~200,000 orthologous SINE loci across the newly available whole-genome sequences of Phalangeriform species and their relatives, and identified 106 highly reliable phylogenetic SINE markers. The presence/absence patterns of these SINE elements within the various Australasian possum genomes provide the first highly significant evidence for the reunification of Australasian possums into one monophyletic group.