Helmholtz Gemeinschaft

Search
Browse
Statistics
Feeds

The genome of the choanoflagellate Monosiga brevicollis and the origin of metazoans

Item Type:Article
Title:The genome of the choanoflagellate Monosiga brevicollis and the origin of metazoans
Creators Name:King, N., Westbrook, M.J., Young, S.L., Kuo, A., Abedin, M., Chapman, J., Fairclough, S., Hellsten, U., Isogai, Y., Letunic, I., Marr, M., Pincus, D., Putnam, N., Rokas, A., Wright, K.J., Zuzow, R., Dirks, W., Good, M., Goodstein, D., Lemons, D., Li, W., Lyons, J.B., Morris, A., Nichols, S., Richter, D.J., Salamov, A., Sequencing, J.G.I., Bork, P., Lim, W.A., Manning, G., Miller, W.T., McGinnis, W., Shapiro, H., Tjian, R., Grigoriev, I.V. and Rokhsar, D.
Abstract:Choanoflagellates are the closest known relatives of metazoans. To discover potential molecular mechanisms underlying the evolution of metazoan multicellularity, we sequenced and analysed the genome of the unicellular choanoflagellate Monosiga brevicollis. The genome contains approximately 9,200 intron-rich genes, including a number that encode cell adhesion and signalling protein domains that are otherwise restricted to metazoans. Here we show that the physical linkages among protein domains often differ between M. brevicollis and metazoans, suggesting that abundant domain shuffling followed the separation of the choanoflagellate and metazoan lineages. The completion of the M. brevicollis genome allows us to reconstruct with increasing resolution the genomic changes that accompanied the origin of metazoans.
Keywords:Cell Adhesion, Conserved Sequence, Eukaryotic Cells, Molecular Evolution, Extracellular Matrix, Gene Expression Regulation, Genetic Speciation, Genome, Hedgehog Proteins, Introns, Phosphotyrosine, Phylogeny, Tertiary Protein Structure, Notch Receptors, Signal Transduction, Transcription Factors, Genetic Transcription, Animals
Source:Nature
ISSN:0028-0836
Publisher:Nature Publishing Group
Volume:451
Number:7180
Page Range:783-788
Date:14 February 2008
Official Publication:https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06617
PubMed:View item in PubMed

Repository Staff Only: item control page

Open Access
MDC Library