Figure 1.

Molecular phylogeny and proposed genomic orientation of Type I α-keratins. Part A is the maximum likelihood phylogeny of Type I α-keratins from human, green anole lizard, green sea turtle, American alligator and the 48 birds. Annotation of Type I 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 I 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 on Part A. The direction of the arrow is indicative of the DNA strand.