Lizard Genome Cracked

The genome of a non-avian member of the reptile lineage has finally been decoded with the efforts of scientists from different research institutions. "This fills out a clade that has been completely ignored before," says lead author Jessica Alföldi of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This reptile is the American green anole lizard (Anolis carolinensis). Prior to this, the only sequenced reptiles were birds, specifically the chicken, the turkey, and the zebra finch.

The lizard is an amniote, the first group of organisms that has evolved to reproduce out of water by laying eggs. Through genomics and proteomics, the scientists were able to investigate the egg-protein genes in the lizard. They found out that among amniotes, the lizard's egg proteins seemed to have evolved faster than the other proteins. This high rate of mutation may be one of the clues on the evolution of the egg.

In addition, the genomic analysis also revealed that their sex determination system is similar to human, leaving the birds as the only amniotes with unique ‘reverse' ZW system.

Read more at http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=lizard-genome-unveiled.