The Common Marmoset Genome Provides Insight into Primate Biology and Evolution

A first analysis of the genome sequence of the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus), assembled using traditional Sanger methods and Ensembl annotation, has permitted genomic comparison with apes and old world monkeys and the identification of specific molecular features that may contribute to the unique biology of this diminutive primate. The common marmoset has a rapid reproductive capacity partly due to prevalence of dizygotic twins. Remarkably, these twins share placental circulation and exchange hematopoietic stem cells in utero, resulting in adults that are hematopoietic chimeras. We observed positive selection or non-synonymous substitutions for genes encoding growth hormone/insulin-like growth factor (growth pathways), respiratory complex I (metabolic pathways), immunobiology, and proteases (reproductive and immunity pathways). In addition, both protein-coding and microRNA genes related to reproduction exhibit rapid sequence evolution. This New World monkey genome sequence enables significantly increased power for comparative analyses among available primate genomes and facilitates biomedical research application.