Genome assembly of the foot-flagging frog, Staurois parvus: a resource for understanding mechanisms of behavior

Abstract

Elaborate and skilled movements of the body have been selected in a variety of species as courtship and rivalry signals. One roadblock in studying these behaviors has been a lack of resources for understanding how they evolved at the genetic level. The Bornean rock frog (Staurois parvus) is an ideal species in which to address this issue. Males wave their hindlimbs in a “foot-flagging” display when competing for mates. The evolution of foot flagging in S. parvus and other species is accompanied by increases in the expression of the androgen receptor gene within its neuromuscular system, but it remains unclear what genetic or transcriptional changes are associated with this behavioral phenotype. We have now assembled the genome of S. parvus, resulting in 3.98 Gbp of 22,402 contigs with a N50 of 611,229 bp. The genome will be a resource for finding genes related to the physiology underlying foot flagging and to adaptations of the neuromuscular system. As a first application of the genome, we also began work in comparative genomics and differential gene expression analysis. We show that the androgen receptor is diverged from other anuran species, and we identify unique expression patterns of genes in the spinal cord and leg muscle that are important for axial patterning, cell specification and morphology, or muscle contraction. This genome will continue to be an important tool for future -omics studies to understand the evolution of elaborate signaling behaviors in this and potentially related species.