Inferring Tunicate Relationships and the Evolution of the Tunicate Hox Cluster with the Genome of Corella inflata.

ABSTRACT: Tunicates, the closest living relatives of vertebrates, have served as a foundational model of early embryonic development for decades. Comparative studies of tunicate phylogeny and genome evolution provide a critical framework for analyzing chordate diversification and the emergence of vertebrates. Toward this goal, we sequenced the genome of Corella inflata (Ascidiacea, Phlebobranchia), so named for the capacity to brood self-fertilized embryos in a modified, "inflated" atrial chamber. Combining the new genome sequence for Co. inflata with publicly available tunicate data, we estimated a tunicate species phylogeny, reconstructed the ancestral Hox gene cluster at important nodes in the tunicate tree, and compared patterns of gene loss between Co. inflata and Ciona robusta, the prevailing

SUBMITTER: DeBiasse MB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7337526 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature