Acoustic communication plays important roles in the survival and reproduction of anurans. The perception and discrimination of conspecific sound signals of anurans were always affected by masking background noise. Previous studies suggested that some frogs evolved the high‐frequency hearing to minimize the low‐frequency noise. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the high‐frequency hearing in anurans have not been well explored. Here, we cloned and obtained the coding regions of a high‐frequency hearing‐related gene (KCNQ4) from 11 representative anuran species and compared them with orthologous sequences from other four anurans. The sequence characteristics and evolutionary analyses suggested the highly conservation of the KCNQ4 gene in anurans, which supported their functional importance. Branch‐specific analysis showed that KCNQ4 genes were under different evolutionary forces in anurans and most anuran lineages showed a generally strong purifying selection. Intriguingly, one significantly positively selected site was identified in the anuran KCNQ4 gene based on FEL model. Positive selection was also found along the common ancestor of Ranidae and Rhacophoridae as well as the ancestral O. tianmuii based on the branch‐site analysis, and the positively selected sites identified were involved in or near the N‐terminal ion transport and the potassium ion channel functional domain of the KCNQ4 genes. The present study revealed valuable information regarding the KCNQ4 genes in anurans and provided some new insights for the underpinnings of the high‐frequency hearing in frogs.

中文翻译：

---

无尾动物 KCNQ4 基因的克隆、表征和进化模式

声音通讯在无尾动物的生存和繁殖中发挥着重要作用。无尾动物对同种声音信号的感知和辨别总是受到掩盖背景噪声的影响。先前的研究表明，一些青蛙进化出了高频听力，以最大限度地减少低频噪音。然而，无尾目动物高频听力的分子机制尚未得到很好的探索。在这里，我们克隆并获得了高频听力相关基因的编码区（KCNQ4）来自 11 个有代表性的无尾目物种，并将它们与其他四种无尾目的直系同源序列进行比较。序列特征和进化分析表明高度保守KCNQ4无尾动物中的基因，这支持了它们的功能重要性。特定部门分析表明KCNQ4无尾动物的基因处于不同的进化力量之下，大多数无尾动物谱系表现出普遍较强的净化选择。有趣的是，在蜮中发现了一个显着正选择的位点KCNQ4基于FEL模型的基因。在 Ranidae 和 Rhacophoridae 的共同祖先以及祖先中也发现了正选择。天目牡蛎基于分支位点分析，确定的正选位点涉及或接近 KCNQ4 基因的 N 端离子转运和钾离子通道功能域。本研究揭示了有关无尾类动物 KCNQ4 基因的宝贵信息，并为青蛙高频听力的基础提供了一些新的见解。