Comparative and demographic analysis of orang-utan genomes

✍ Scribed by Locke, Devin P.; Hillier, LaDeana W.; Warren, Wesley C.; Worley, Kim C.; Nazareth, Lynne V.; Muzny, Donna M.; Yang, Shiaw-Pyng; Wang, Zhengyuan; Chinwalla, Asif T.; Minx, Pat

• Book ID: 109899368
• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 863 KB
• Volume: 469
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0028-0836
• DOI: 10.1038/nature09687

✦ Synopsis

Sequence analyses of endangered orang-utan species

The genome of the Southeast Asian great ape or orang-utan has been sequenced — specifically a draft assembly of a Sumatran female individual and short-read sequence data from five further Sumatran and five Bornean orang-utan, Pongo abelii and Pongo pygmaeus, respectively. Orang-utan species appear to have split around 400,000 years ago, more recent than most previous estimates suggested, resulting in an average Bornean–Sumatran nucleotide identity of 99.68%. Structural evolution of the orang-utan genome seems to have proceeded much more slowly than that of other great apes, including chimpanzees and humans. With both orang-utan species on the endangered list, the authors hope that knowledge of the genome sequence and its variation between populations will provide a valuable resource for conservationists.

Supplementary information

The online version of this article (doi:10.1038/nature09687) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.