Scientists have compared the set of genes of the great white shark with the set of genes of the zebrafish and humans. The comparison showed that the proteins responsible for metabolism in sharks were similar to proteins in humans, performing a similar function.
For the first time, biologists have decoded the genome of the ocean's oldest predator, the white shark, and have found that it is in many ways similar to the human genetic code, according to an article published in the journal BMC Genomics.
The white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) is one of the largest and oldest carnivorous fish and is of great interest to scientists - in particular, because now this species is on the verge of extinction. White sharks have long remained a "genetic mystery". Michael Stanhope from Cornell University (USA) and his colleagues decided for the first time to decipher its genetic code.
They studied the heart of a white shark - this predator was caught by poachers, and then transferred by American law enforcement officers to scientists for their project. Stanhope and colleagues compared the animal's genetic makeup to that of the zebrafish (Danio rerio) and humans.
It turned out that white sharks have little resemblance to zebrafish - small fish that are a model marine organism, since they are the best studied. Scientists note that this conclusion was quite unexpected for them: from an evolutionary point of view, zebrafish are much closer to sea predators. In the meantime, a comparison of the gene sets of sharks and humans gave a different result: for example, proteins responsible for metabolism in sharks were similar to proteins in humans, performing a similar function.
The authors of the article suggest that this result can be explained by the fact that white sharks are partially warm-blooded fish, therefore, their metabolism is more intense than that of cold-blooded fish. In the future, scientists plan to test their hypothesis by comparing the set of genes of the great white shark and other warm-blooded predators.