DOI: 10.5061/dryad.fr84hd25
title: Data from: RUNX2 tandem repeats and the evolution of facial length in placental mammals

description: BACKGROUND: When simple sequence repeats are integrated into functional
 genes, they can potentially act as evolutionary 'tuning knobs',
 supplying abundant genetic variation with minimal risk of pleiotropic
 deleterious effects. The genetic basis of variation in facial shape and
 length represents a possible example of this phenomenon. Runt-related
 transcription factor 2 (RUNX2) which is involved in osteoblast
 differentiation, contains a functionally-important tandem repeat of
 glutamine and alanine amino acids. The ratio of glutamines to alanines
 (the QA ratio) in this protein seemingly influences the regulation of bone
 development. Notably, in domestic breeds of dog, and in carnivorans in
 general, the ratio of glutamines to alanines is strongly correlated with
 facial length. RESULTS: In this study we examine whether this correlation
 holds true across placental mammals, particularly those mammals for which
 facial length is highly variable and related to adaptive behavior and
 lifestyle (e.g., primates, afrotherians, xenarthrans). We obtained
 relative facial length measurements and RUNX2 sequences for 41 mammalian
 species representing 12 orders. Using both a phylogenetic generalized
 least squares model and recently-developed Bayesian comparative method, we
 tested for a correlation between genetic and morphometric data while
 controlling for phylogeny, evolutionary rates, and divergence times.
 Non-carnivoran taxa generally had substantially lower glutamine-alanine
 ratios than carnivorans (primates and xenarthrans with means of 1.34 and
 1.25, respectively, compared to a mean of 3.1 for carnivorans), and we
 found no correlation between RUNX2 sequence and face length across
 placental mammals. CONCLUSIONS: Results of our diverse comparative
 phylogenetic analyses indicate that QA ratio does not consistently
 correlate with face length across the 41 mammalian taxa considered. Thus,
 although RUNX2 might function as a 'tuning knob' modifying face
 length in carnivorans, this relationship is not conserved across mammals
 in general.
description: carnivora30_sears_cytb.phyAlignment of 30 carnivoran mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences in Phylip formatcarnivora30_sears_cytb.fastaAlignment of 30 carnivoran mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences in fasta formatcarnivora30_sears_cytb.calibCoEvol calibration file for the 30 species carnivoran cytochrome b datasetcarnivora30_sears_cytb_intree.treCoEvol intree file for the 30 species carnivoran cytochrome b datasetcarnivora30_sears_cytb_ratio.txtCoEvol trait correlation file for the 30 species carnivoran cytochrome b datasetmam41_vwf_runx2.phylipAlignment of 41 mammalian nuclear VWF sequences in Phylip formatmam41_vwf_runx2.fastaAlignment of 41 mammalian nuclear VWF sequences in Fasta formatmam41_vwf_runx2_calib.txtCoEvol calibration file for the 41 mammalian species datasetmam41_vwf_runx2_intree.treCoEvol intree file for the 41 mammalian species datasetmam41_vwf_runx2_ratio1.txtCoEvol trait correlation file (ratio 1) for the 41 mammalian species datasetmam41_vwf_runx2_ratio2.txtCoEvol trait correlation file (ratio 2) for the 41 mammalian species datasetmam41_vwf_runx2_ratio3.txtCoEvol trait correlation file (ratio 3) for the 41 mammalian species datasetmam41_vwf_runx2_ratio4.txtCoEvol trait correlation file (ratio 4) for the 41 mammalian species dataset