Journal
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
Volume 38, Issue 9, Pages 3649-3663Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msab130
Keywords
vulture; conservation; scavenging; gastric acid; immune system
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [31672272, 31722051]
- Natural Science Foundation of the Hubei Province [2019CFA075]
- Plateau Ecology Youth Innovative Fund of Wuhan University [413100105]
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Vultures, with their rare dietary specialization of obligate scavenging, provide essential ecological services but many species are endangered. Research suggests that their unique adaptations may have led to low genetic diversity, making them particularly vulnerable to human activities.
Obligate scavenging on the dead and decaying animal matter is a rare dietary specialization that in extant vertebrates is restricted to vultures. These birds perform essential ecological services, yet many vulture species have undergone recent steep population declines and are now endangered. To test for molecular adaptations underlying obligate scavenging in vultures, and to assess whether genomic features might have contributed to their population declines, we generated high-quality genomes of the Himalayan and bearded vultures, representing both independent origins of scavenging within the Accipitridae, alongside a sister taxon, the upland buzzard. By comparing our data to published sequences from other birds, we show that the evolution of obligate scavenging in vultures has been accompanied by widespread positive selection acting on genes underlying gastric acid production, and immunity. Moreover, we find evidence of parallel molecular evolution, with amino acid replacements shared among divergent lineages of these scavengers. Our genome-wide screens also reveal that both the Himalayan and bearded vultures exhibit low levels of genetic diversity, equating to around a half of the mean genetic diversity of other bird genomes examined. However, demographic reconstructions indicate that population declines began at around the Last Glacial Maximum, predating the well-documented dramatic declines of the past three decades. Taken together, our genomic analyses imply that vultures harbor unique adaptations for processing carrion, but that modern populations are genetically depauperate and thus especially vulnerable to further genetic erosion through anthropogenic activities.
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