Figure 2

Molecular phylogeny and proposed genomic orientation of Type II α-keratins. Part A is the maximum likelihood phylogeny of Type II α-keratins from human, green anole lizard, green sea turtle, American alligator and the 48 birds. Annotation of Type II α-keratins is based upon avian gene annotations. All clades are statistically significant. Genes labeled as non-avian include genes from human, green anole lizard, green sea turtle and/or American alligator. Part B is the proposed genomic orientation of Type II α-keratins in birds. While this whole region was not found on a single continuous genomic scaffold for some birds, the genomic alignment of scaffolds/contigs with at least 2 different gene variants resulted in this proposed consensus gene orientation of birds. Annotations are based upon Part A. The direction of the arrow is indicative of the DNA strand. The one Type I α-keratin, KRT18, shown in the consensus genomic orientation was only found in 7 species of birds, but was included in this figure based on the present data and previous studies [7],[38],[39].