US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, California 94598, USA.
Nature. 2010 Mar 25;464(7288):592-6. doi: 10.1038/nature08830. Epub 2010 Mar 14.
The freshwater cnidarian Hydra was first described in 1702 and has been the object of study for 300 years. Experimental studies of Hydra between 1736 and 1744 culminated in the discovery of asexual reproduction of an animal by budding, the first description of regeneration in an animal, and successful transplantation of tissue between animals. Today, Hydra is an important model for studies of axial patterning, stem cell biology and regeneration. Here we report the genome of Hydra magnipapillata and compare it to the genomes of the anthozoan Nematostella vectensis and other animals. The Hydra genome has been shaped by bursts of transposable element expansion, horizontal gene transfer, trans-splicing, and simplification of gene structure and gene content that parallel simplification of the Hydra life cycle. We also report the sequence of the genome of a novel bacterium stably associated with H. magnipapillata. Comparisons of the Hydra genome to the genomes of other animals shed light on the evolution of epithelia, contractile tissues, developmentally regulated transcription factors, the Spemann-Mangold organizer, pluripotency genes and the neuromuscular junction.
淡水刺胞动物水螅于 1702 年首次被描述，至今已有 300 年的研究历史。1736 年至 1744 年期间，水螅的实验研究最终发现了动物的出芽无性繁殖、动物再生的首次描述以及动物之间组织的成功移植。如今，水螅已成为研究轴向模式、干细胞生物学和再生的重要模型。本文报道了大水螅（Hydra magnipapillata）的基因组，并与刺胞动物海葵（Nematostella vectensis）和其他动物的基因组进行了比较。水螅基因组经历了转座元件的爆发式扩张、水平基因转移、转剪接以及基因结构和基因内容的简化，与水螅生命周期的简化平行。我们还报告了与大水螅稳定相关的一种新型细菌的基因组序列。将水螅基因组与其他动物的基因组进行比较，有助于揭示上皮组织、收缩组织、发育调控转录因子、斯佩曼-曼戈尔德组织者、多能性基因和神经肌肉接头的进化。
