A bird-like genome from a frog: Mechanisms of genome size reduction in the ornate burrowing frog, Platyplectrum ornatum
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Significance: The mechanisms by which genomes become smaller in lineages with large genomes, such as many frogs, are poorly understood. Here, we present the sequence of a very small genome from a frog—that of the ornate burrowing frog, Platyplectrum ornatum , whose genome is smaller than that of many birds, a group well known for small genomes. Our data show that this frog evolved molecular mechanisms to keep in check a major process characterizing large genomes: namely, proliferation of transposable elements. We also present basic data on gene expression and sex determination in this emerging model for genome miniaturization.
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Genome compaction has been documented across diverse vertebrate and invertebrate lineages irrespective of body size, with compact genomes consistently showing predictable signatures of repeat depletion and structural simplification.
“Genome compaction has been documented across diverse vertebrate and invertebrate lineages irrespective of body size, with compact genomes consistently showing predictable signatures of repeat depletion and structural simplification (e.g., refs. 31, 55, and 56).”
From Convergent genome streamlining accompanies independent miniaturization in the world’s smallest fishes (2026) · cites this paper as [56]
The Discussion (page unavailable) associates smaller genomes in fish and insects with reduced repeat content, and the Results report shorter introns in the compact frog genome. The paper does not establish that these signatures occur consistently across vertebrates and invertebrates or irrespective of body size; it describes repeat depletion as a prevalent trend and notes that the tight correlation between repeat abundance and genome size has been questioned. (LLM, conf=0.85)
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Cites
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Sudasinghe, H., Matschiner, M., Britz, R., Conway, K. W., Tan, H. H., Salzburger, W., Peichel, C. L., & Rüber, L. (2026) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2614605123
- Authors
- Lamichhaney, S., Catullo, R., Keogh, J. S., Clulow, S., Edwards, S. V., & Ezaz, T.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Australian National University (AU)
- Macquarie University (AU)
- University of Canberra (AU)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2021-03-08
- Volume
- 118
- Issue
- 11
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC7980411
- OpenAlex
- W3135161291
- Cited by
- 31
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 4
- FWCI
- 3.06
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Chromosomal and Genetic Variations
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic and Clinical Aspects of Sex Determination and Chromosomal Abnormalities
- Keywords
- genome size reduction, transposable elements, small genomes, gene expression, sex determination
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Anura, Birds, Female, Karyotyping, Male, Reproduction, RNA, Messenger, Sexual Behavior, Animal, Sex Chromosomes, Gene Expression, Genome, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Sex Determination Processes, Gene Expression Profiling, RNA, Small Interfering, Molecular Sequence Annotation, Genome Size
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