Adaptive Evolution Of Taste Genes In Raptors And Their Relatives

Taste is involved in the food selection and may be subjected to natural selection.In this study,we analyzed the adaptive evolution of taste pathway genes in different groups of raptors and their close relatives.The sequences of the taste gene coding region were obtained by RNA-seq of tongue tissue,and the positive selection signals of taste genes in different groups were analyzed by using branch model,branch-site model and Clade model implemented in PAML software.The results showed that the taste genes among taxa studied are widely subjected to positive selection,suggesting the adaptive divergence of their taste functions.The phylogenetic analysis further showed that two umami receptor genes,TAS1R1 and TRPM5 of carnivorous birds were clustered together,suggesting their convergent evolution.Our results show that taste genes generally suffer strong positive selection in raptors and their relatives,suggesting that taste plays an important role in adaptive evolution of different bird groups.