Sea anemone genome reveals ancestral eumetazoan gene repertoire and genomic organization.
Sea anemones are seemingly primitive animals that, along with corals, jellyfish, and hydras, constitute the oldest eumetazoan phylum, the Cnidaria. Here, we report a comparative analysis of the draft genome of an emerging cnidarian model, the starlet sea anemone Nematostella vectensis. The sea anemone genome is complex, with a gene repertoire, exon-intron structure, and large-scale gene linkage more similar to vertebrates than to flies or nematodes, implying that the genome of the eumetazoan ancestor was similarly complex. Nearly one-fifth of the inferred genes of the ancestor are eumetazoan novelties, which are enriched for animal functions like cell signaling, adhesion, and synaptic transmission. Analysis of diverse pathways suggests that these gene "inventions" along the lineage leading to animals were likely already well integrated with preexisting eukaryotic genes in the eumetazoan progenitor.
Putnam
Nicholas H
NH
Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, CA 94598, USA.
Srivastava
Mansi
M
Hellsten
Uffe
U
Dirks
Bill
B
Chapman
Jarrod
J
Salamov
Asaf
A
Terry
Astrid
A
Shapiro
Harris
H
Lindquist
Erika
E
Kapitonov
Vladimir V
VV
Jurka
Jerzy
J
Genikhovich
Grigory
G
Grigoriev
Igor V
IV
Lucas
Susan M
SM
Steele
Robert E
RE
Finnerty
John R
JR
Technau
Ulrich
U
Martindale
Mark Q
MQ
Rokhsar
Daniel S
DS
D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005796:Genes; D008040:Genetic Linkage; D016678:Genome; D015894:Genome, Human; D023281:Genomics; D006801:Humans; D007438:Introns; D053858:Metabolic Networks and Pathways; D005810:Multigene Family; D009132:Muscles / Q000502:physiology; D009424:Nervous System Physiological Phenomena; D010802:Phylogeny; D012615:Sea Anemones / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D015398:Signal Transduction; D026801:Synteny