The genome of the seadragon permits lifting the veil on its mysterious looks and sex-determining locus.

Few fishes have evolved elevated body temperatures compared with ambient temperatures, and only in opah (Lampris spp) is the entire body affected. To understand the molecular basis of endothermy, we analyzed the opah genome and identified 23 genes with convergent amino acid substitutions across fish, birds, and mammals, including slc8b1, which encodes the mitochondrial Na⁺/Ca²⁺ exchanger and is essential for heart function and metabolic heat production. Among endothermic fishes, 44 convergent genes with suggestive metabolic functions were identified, such as glrx3, encoding a crucial protein for hemoglobin maturation. Numerous genes involved in the production and retention of metabolic heat were also found to be under positive selection. Analyses of opah's unique inner-heat-producing pectoral muscle layer (PMI), an evolutionary key innovation, revealed that many proteins were co-opted from dorsal swimming muscles for thermogenesis and oxidative phosphorylation. Thus, the opah genome provides valuable resources and opportunities to uncover the genetic basis of thermal adaptations in fish.

Flax(Linum usitatissimum)is an important bast fiber crop.High lignin content in the flax fiber greatly affects the performance and quality in the flax textile industry.CCoAOMT1,4CL1,4CL2,COMT,F5H1,F5H2,and F5H3 are putative genes coding the key enzymes involved in lignin accumulation.The expression patterns of these genes were analyzed by semi-quantitative RT-PCR in different flax tissues and in xylem and phloem(bark)at different development stages of the variety Baihua.The results revealed that all genes were detected to express in seedlings,roots,florescent xylem,florescent phloem,leaves, flowers,and young fruits excluding F5H1 in roots.Expression of CCoAOMT1 was consistently high in all the tissues detected. There existed complementary expression between two 4CL genes and among the three F5H genes in various tissues.In the phloem,all genes lowly expressed except for 4CL2 at florescence and highly expressed after flowering.The expression of 4CL1 was high,and that of F5H3 was low in the phloem at all stages compared with that of other genes.In the xylem,expression of 4CL1 gene was low at all the developing stages,that of F5H1 reached a peak before flowering and that of the other genes in the xylem reached the highest at 30 d after emergence of seedlings and gradually declined at late growing stages,with a sharp decrease to very lower level after flowering.The expression of 4CL1compared with other genes was significantly higher in phloem than in xylem.