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The tammar wallaby genome and transcriptome

The tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii) is a kangaroo species native to islands lying near the coasts of Western and South Australia, as well as to small pockets of the mainland. The tammar is considered to be a model marsupial organism, and its value lies chiefly in the study of mammalian evolution, development and immunity. In a collection of articles published by BioMed Central, including a lead article in Genome Biology, the Australian-led, international Tammar Wallaby Genome Sequencing Consortium present the tammar wallaby genome and transcriptome sequences. These landmark datasets constitute the first kangaroo genome sequence and are enriched by a number of exciting biological findings that have only been made possible by the novel availability of sequencing data. Left: a tammar wallaby. Right: newborn tammar in its mother’s pouch.

  1. The increasing number of assembled mammalian genomes makes it possible to compare genome organisation across mammalian lineages and reconstruct chromosomes of the ancestral marsupial and therian (marsupial and...

    Authors: Janine E Deakin, Margaret L Delbridge, Edda Koina, Nerida Harley, Amber E Alsop, Chenwei Wang, Vidushi S Patel and Jennifer A Marshall Graves
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2013 13:258
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  3. Small RNAs have proven to be essential regulatory molecules encoded within eukaryotic genomes. These short RNAs participate in a diverse array of cellular processes including gene regulation, chromatin dynamic...

    Authors: James Lindsay, Dawn M Carone, Judy Brown, Laura Hall, Sohaib Qureshi, Sarah E Mitchell, Nicholas Jannetty, Greg Hannon, Marilyn Renfree, Andrew Pask, Michael O’Neill and Rachel O’Neill
    Citation: BMC Genomics 2012 13:559
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  4. In marsupials, growth and development of the young occur postnatally, regulated by milk that changes in composition throughout the long lactation. To initiate lactation in mammals, there is an absolute require...

    Authors: Jessica M Stringer, Shunsuke Suzuki, Andrew J Pask, Geoff Shaw and Marilyn B Renfree
    Citation: Epigenetics & Chromatin 2012 5:14
    Content type: Research Published on:

  5. The HOX gene clusters are thought to be highly conserved amongst mammals and other vertebrates, but the long non-coding RNAs have only been studied in detail in human and mouse. The sequencing of the kangaroo ...

    Authors: Hongshi Yu, James Lindsay, Zhi-Ping Feng, Stephen Frankenberg, Yanqiu Hu, Dawn Carone, Geoff Shaw, Andrew J Pask, Rachel O’Neill, Anthony T Papenfuss and Marilyn B Renfree
    Citation: BMC Genomics 2012 13:251
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  6. The marsupial early lactation protein (ELP) gene is expressed in the mammary gland and the protein is secreted into milk during early lactation (Phase 2A). Mature ELP shares approximately 55.4% similarity with th...

    Authors: Elizabeth A Pharo, Alison A De Leo, Marilyn B Renfree, Peter C Thomson, Christophe M Lefèvre and Kevin R Nicholas
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2012 12:80
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  7. Kangaroos and wallabies have specialised limbs that allow for their hopping mode of locomotion. The hindlimbs differentiate much later in development but become much larger than the forelimbs. The hindlimb aut...

    Authors: Keng Yih Chew, Hongshi Yu, Andrew J Pask, Geoffrey Shaw and Marilyn B Renfree
    Citation: BMC Developmental Biology 2012 12:2
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  8. Early marsupial conceptuses differ markedly from those of eutherian mammals, especially during cleavage and early blastocyst stages of development. Additionally, in marsupials the zona pellucida is surrounded ...

    Authors: Stephen Frankenberg, Jane Fenelon, Bonnie Dopheide, Geoff Shaw and Marilyn B Renfree
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2011 11:373
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  9. Desert hedgehog (DHH) belongs to the hedgehog gene family that act as secreted intercellular signal transducers. DHH is an essential morphogen for normal testicular development and function in both mice and human...

    Authors: William A O'Hara, Walid J Azar, Richard R Behringer, Marilyn B Renfree and Andrew J Pask
    Citation: BMC Developmental Biology 2011 11:72
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  10. TG-interacting factors (TGIFs) belong to a family of TALE-homeodomain proteins including TGIF1, TGIF2 and TGIFLX/Y in human. Both TGIF1 and TGIF2 act as transcription factors repressing TGF-β signalling. Human TG...

    Authors: Yanqiu Hu, Hongshi Yu, Geoff Shaw, Marilyn B Renfree and Andrew J Pask
    Citation: BMC Developmental Biology 2011 11:58
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  11. The limited (2X) coverage of the tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii) genome sequence dataset currently presents a challenge for assembly and anchoring onto chromosomes. To provide a framework for this assembly, it ...

    Authors: Chenwei Wang, Janine E Deakin, Willem Rens, Kyall R Zenger, Katherine Belov, Jennifer A Marshall Graves and Frank W Nicholas
    Citation: BMC Genomics 2011 12:422
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  12. The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is a group of genes with a variety of roles in the innate and adaptive immune responses. MHC genes form a genetically linked cluster in eutherian mammals, an organiza...

    Authors: Hannah V Siddle, Janine E Deakin, Penny Coggill, Laurens G Wilming, Jennifer Harrow, Jim Kaufman, Stephan Beck and Katherine Belov
    Citation: BMC Genomics 2011 12:421
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  13. The thymus plays a critical role in the development and maturation of T-cells. Humans have a single thoracic thymus and presence of a second thymus is considered an anomaly. However, many vertebrates have mult...

    Authors: Emily SW Wong, Anthony T Papenfuss, Andreas Heger, Arthur L Hsu, Chris P Ponting, Robert D Miller, Jane C Fenelon, Marilyn B Renfree, Richard A Gibbs and Katherine Belov
    Citation: BMC Genomics 2011 12:420
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  14. Genomic imprinting causes parent-of-origin specific gene expression by differential epigenetic modifications between two parental genomes. We previously reported that there is no evidence of genomic imprinting...

    Authors: Shunsuke Suzuki, Geoffrey Shaw, Tomoko Kaneko-Ishino, Fumitoshi Ishino and Marilyn B Renfree
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2011 11:244
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  16. We present the genome sequence of the tammar wallaby, Macropus eugenii, which is a member of the kangaroo family and the first representative of the iconic hopping mammals that symbolize Australia to be sequenced...

    Authors: Marilyn B Renfree, Anthony T Papenfuss, Janine E Deakin, James Lindsay, Thomas Heider, Katherine Belov, Willem Rens, Paul D Waters, Elizabeth A Pharo, Geoff Shaw, Emily SW Wong, Christophe M Lefèvre, Kevin R Nicholas, Yoko Kuroki, Matthew J Wakefield, Kyall R Zenger…
    Citation: Genome Biology 2011 12:R81
    Content type: Research Published on:

    The Erratum to this article has been published in Genome Biology 2011 12:414

  17. The tammar wallaby, Macropus eugenii, a small kangaroo used for decades for studies of reproduction and metabolism, is the model Australian marsupial for genome sequencing and genetic investigations. The producti...

    Authors: Chenwei Wang, Lee Webley, Ke-jun Wei, Matthew J Wakefield, Hardip R Patel, Janine E Deakin, Amber Alsop, Jennifer A Marshall Graves, Desmond W Cooper, Frank W Nicholas and Kyall R Zenger
    Citation: BMC Genetics 2011 12:72
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  18. To understand the evolutionary origins of our own immune system, we need to characterise the immune system of our distant relatives, the marsupials and monotremes. The recent sequencing of the genomes of two m...

    Authors: Emily SW Wong, Anthony T Papenfuss and Katherine Belov
    Citation: BMC Immunology 2011 12:48
    Content type: Database Published on:

  19. The vomeronasal organ (VNO) detects pheromones via two large families of vomeronasal receptors: vomeronasal receptor 1 (V1R) and vomeronasal receptor 2 (V2R). Both VRs have a common receptor activation cascade...

    Authors: Stephen Frankenberg, Nanette Y Schneider, Terrence P Fletcher, Geoffrey Shaw and Marilyn B Renfree
    Citation: BMC Molecular Biology 2011 12:39
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  22. X chromosome inactivation is a spectacular example of epigenetic silencing. In order to deduce how this complex system evolved, we examined X inactivation in a model marsupial, the tammar wallaby (Macropus eugeni...

    Authors: Shafagh Al Nadaf, Paul D Waters, Edda Koina, Janine E Deakin, Kristen S Jordan and Jennifer AM Graves
    Citation: Genome Biology 2010 11:R122
    Content type: Research Published on: