Extreme genome scrambling in marine planktonic Oikopleura dioica cryptic species.

ABSTRACT: Genome structural variations within species are rare. How selective constraints preserve gene order and chromosome structure is a central question in evolutionary biology that remains unsolved. Our sequencing of several genomes of the appendicularian tunicate Oikopleura dioica around the globe reveals extreme genome scrambling caused by thousands of chromosomal rearrangements, although showing no obvious morphological differences between these animals. The breakpoint accumulation rate is an order of magnitude higher than in ascidian tunicates, nematodes, Drosophila, or mammals. Chromosome arms and sex-specific regions appear to be the primary unit of macrosynteny conservation. At the microsyntenic level, scrambling did not preserve operon structures, suggesting an absence of

SUBMITTER: Plessy C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11067885 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature