The dynamic genome of Hydra.
The freshwater cnidarian Hydra was first described in 1702 and has been the object of study for 300 years. Experimental studies of Hydra between 1736 and 1744 culminated in the discovery of asexual reproduction of an animal by budding, the first description of regeneration in an animal, and successful transplantation of tissue between animals. Today, Hydra is an important model for studies of axial patterning, stem cell biology and regeneration. Here we report the genome of Hydra magnipapillata and compare it to the genomes of the anthozoan Nematostella vectensis and other animals. The Hydra genome has been shaped by bursts of transposable element expansion, horizontal gene transfer, trans-splicing, and simplification of gene structure and gene content that parallel simplification of the Hydra life cycle. We also report the sequence of the genome of a novel bacterium stably associated with H. magnipapillata. Comparisons of the Hydra genome to the genomes of other animals shed light on the evolution of epithelia, contractile tissues, developmentally regulated transcription factors, the Spemann-Mangold organizer, pluripotency genes and the neuromuscular junction.
US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, California 94598, USA.
Jarrod A
JA
Chapman
Ewen F
EF
Kirkness
Oleg
O
Simakov
Steven E
SE
Hampson
Therese
T
Mitros
Thomas
T
Weinmaier
Thomas
T
Rattei
Prakash G
PG
Balasubramanian
Jon
J
Borman
Dana
D
Busam
Kathryn
K
Disbennett
Cynthia
C
Pfannkoch
Nadezhda
N
Sumin
Granger G
GG
Sutton
Lakshmi Devi
LD
Viswanathan
Brian
B
Walenz
David M
DM
Goodstein
Uffe
U
Hellsten
Takeshi
T
Kawashima
Simon E
SE
Prochnik
Nicholas H
NH
Putnam
Shengquiang
S
Shu
Bruce
B
Blumberg
Catherine E
CE
Dana
Lydia
L
Gee
Dennis F
DF
Kibler
Lee
L
Law
Dirk
D
Lindgens
Daniel E
DE
Martinez
Jisong
J
Peng
Philip A
PA
Wigge
Bianca
B
Bertulat
Corina
C
Guder
Yukio
Y
Nakamura
Suat
S
Ozbek
Hiroshi
H
Watanabe
Konstantin
K
Khalturin
Georg
G
Hemmrich
André
A
Franke
René
R
Augustin
Sebastian
S
Fraune
Eisuke
E
Hayakawa
Shiho
S
Hayakawa
Mamiko
M
Hirose
Jung Shan
JS
Hwang
Kazuho
K
Ikeo
Chiemi
C
Nishimiya-Fujisawa
Atshushi
A
Ogura
Toshio
T
Takahashi
Patrick R H
PR
Steinmetz
Xiaoming
X
Zhang
Roland
R
Aufschnaiter
Marie-Kristin
MK
Eder
Anne-Kathrin
AK
Gorny
Willi
W
Salvenmoser
Alysha M
AM
Heimberg
Benjamin M
BM
Wheeler
Kevin J
KJ
Peterson
Angelika
A
Böttger
Patrick
P
Tischler
Alexander
A
Wolf
Takashi
T
Gojobori
Karin A
KA
Remington
Robert L
RL
Strausberg
J Craig
JC
Venter
Ulrich
U
Technau
Bert
B
Hobmayer
Thomas C G
TC
Bosch
Thomas W
TW
Holstein
Toshitaka
T
Fujisawa
Hans R
HR
Bode
Charles N
CN
David
Daniel S
DS
Rokhsar
Robert E
RE
Steele
D000818:Animals; D037421:Anthozoa / Q000235:genetics; D042621:Comamonadaceae / Q000235:genetics; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements / Q000235:genetics; D022761:Gene Transfer, Horizontal / Q000235:genetics; D016678:Genome / Q000235:genetics*; D016680:Genome, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D006829:Hydra / Q000235:genetics* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009469:Neuromuscular Junction / Q000648:ultrastructure
D004251:DNA Transposable Elements