The genome of a sea spider corroborates a shared Hox cluster motif in arthropods with a reduced posterior tagma.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Chelicerate evolution is contentiously debated, with recent studies challenging traditional phylogenetic hypotheses and scenarios of major evolutionary events, like terrestrialization. Sea spiders (Pycnogonida) represent the uncontested marine sister group of all other chelicerates, featuring a-likely plesiomorphic-indirect development. Accordingly, pycnogonids hold the potential to provide crucial insight into the evolution of chelicerate genomes and body patterning. Due to the lack of high-quality genomic and transcriptomic resources, however, this potential remains largely unexplored.

Results

We employ long-read sequencing and proximity ligation data to assemble the first near chromosome-level sea spider genome for Pycnogonum litorale, complemented by comprehen

SUBMITTER: Papadopoulos N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12220506 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature