Data from: Genomic analysis reveals hidden biodiversity within colugos, the sister group to primates

Colugos are one of the most poorly studied mammals despite their centrality to resolving supraordinal primate relationships. Two described species of these gliding mammals are the sole living members of the order Dermoptera, distributed throughout Southeast Asia. We generated a draft genome sequence for a Sunda colugo and a Philippine colugo reference alignment, and used these to identify colugo-specific genetic changes that were enriched in sensory and musculo-skeletal related genes that likely underlie their nocturnal and gliding adaptations. Phylogenomic analysis and catalogs of rare genomic changes overwhelmingly support the contested hypothesis that colugos are the sister group to primates (Primatomorpha), to the exclusion of treeshrews. We captured ~140-kb of orthologous sequence data from colugo museum specimens sampled across their range, and identified large genetic differences between many geographically isolated populations that may result in a 300% increase in the number of recognized colugo species. Our results identify conservation units to mitigate future losses of this enigmatic mammalian order.

尽管鼯猴（Colugo）对于解析灵长类以上超阶元的系统发育关系具有核心意义，但其却是目前研究程度最低的哺乳动物类群之一。目前已被描述的2种滑翔型哺乳动物——鼯猴，是皮翼目（Dermoptera）仅存的现生类群，其分布范围覆盖整个东南亚。本研究为巽他鼯猴构建了基因组草图序列，并为菲律宾鼯猴生成了参考比对数据集；基于这两组数据，我们鉴定出了鼯猴特有的遗传变异，这些变异富集于感觉系统与肌肉骨骼相关的基因中，这大概率是其夜行性与滑翔适应性的遗传基础。系统发育基因组学分析与稀有基因组变异目录的整合结果，强有力地支持了长期存在争议的假说：即皮翼目与灵长目构成姊妹群，二者共同归属于灵形总目（Primatomorpha），而树鼩类群并不属于该总目。我们通过跨其分布范围采样的鼯猴博物馆标本，捕获了约140千碱基对的直系同源序列数据，并鉴定出多个地理隔离种群间存在显著的遗传分化，这一发现或将使已确认的鼯猴物种数量增加300%。本研究的结果为划定保护单元以缓解这一神秘哺乳动物类群未来可能面临的生存危机提供了科学依据。