In addition, many proteins must play roles in the large differences in size and development between the bowhead and related species and our results reveal possible candidates for further functional studies; for example, in the top ten proteins, SNX3 (sorting nexin 3) has been associated in one patient with eye formation defects and microcephaly (Vervoort et al., 2002), and WDR5 (WD repeat-containing protein 5) has been associated with osteoblast differentiation and bone development (Gori et al., 2006). Here, WDR5 is linked to microcephaly.