Nematostella vectensis

Cnidaria – the animal phylum that includes sea anemones, corals, jellyfish, and hydra – occupies a critical position in the tree of life. As the simplest Eumetazoans (animals with a tissue grade of organization) they are the most primitive animals with epithelial cells, neurons, stem cells, complex extra-cellular matrix, muscle fibers, and a fixed axis of symmetry. Ediacaran fossils with Cnidarian affinities are among the most ancient animal relics. As the principal architects and components of coral reefs, anthozoans (corals) are responsible for the maintenance of tremendous marine diversity. The sea anemone Nematostella vectensis, a member of the basal class Anthozoa within Cnidaria, is emerging a model system for the molecular dissection of Cnidarian development, providing key “evo-devo” studies to elucidate the emergence, elaboration, and deployment of the basic complement of genes that underlie the formation of animal body plans.

To help illuminate the evolutionary origins of animals we have sequenced the genome of Nematostella, discovering chromosome-scale macrosynteny shared between sea anemones, sponges, and amphioxus, as well as a lack of obvious TADs and extended HOX and NK gene clusters.

Publication:

Sea anemone genomes reveal ancestral metazoan chromosomal macrosynteny (2020).
Bob Zimmermann, Sofia M.C. Robb, Grigory Genikhovich, Whitney J. Fropf, Lukas Weilguny, Shuonan He, Shiyuan Chen, Jessica Lovegrove-Walsh, Eric M. Hill, Katerina Ragkousi, Daniela Praher, David Fredman, Yehu Moran, Matthew C. Gibson*, and UlrichTechnau*

bioRxiv 2020.10.30.359448; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.30.359448