Similar bodies, different genomes

摘要

A species of marine zooplankton looks like some of its relatives but has a drastically different genomic structure. This suggests, contrary to conventional thinking, that conserved genomic architecture is not needed to maintain morphological features between species.rnDaniel Chourrout at the University of Bergen in Norway and Patrick Wincker at Genoscope in Evry, France, and their co-workers analysed the genome of the tunicate Oikopleura dioicarn(pictured), a rapidly evolving organism that is one of the closest relatives to the vertebrates. They found several unusual features, including an order of genes on the chromosomes that was very different from that of related species.