Baumgarten Sebastian, Simakov Oleg, Esherick Lisl Y, Liew Yi Jin, Lehnert Erik M, Michell Craig T, Li Yong, Hambleton Elizabeth A, Guse Annika, Oates Matt E, Gough Julian, Weis Virginia M, Aranda Manuel, Pringle John R, Voolstra Christian R
Red Sea Research Center, Division of Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia;
Centre for Organismal Studies, Heidelberg University, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany;
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015 Sep 22;112(38):11893-8. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1513318112. Epub 2015 Aug 31.
The most diverse marine ecosystems, coral reefs, depend upon a functional symbiosis between a cnidarian animal host (the coral) and intracellular photosynthetic dinoflagellate algae. The molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying this endosymbiosis are not well understood, in part because of the difficulties of experimental work with corals. The small sea anemone Aiptasia provides a tractable laboratory model for investigating these mechanisms. Here we report on the assembly and analysis of the Aiptasia genome, which will provide a foundation for future studies and has revealed several features that may be key to understanding the evolution and function of the endosymbiosis. These features include genomic rearrangements and taxonomically restricted genes that may be functionally related to the symbiosis, aspects of host dependence on alga-derived nutrients, a novel and expanded cnidarian-specific family of putative pattern-recognition receptors that might be involved in the animal-algal interactions, and extensive lineage-specific horizontal gene transfer. Extensive integration of genes of prokaryotic origin, including genes for antimicrobial peptides, presumably reflects an intimate association of the animal-algal pair also with its prokaryotic microbiome.
最多样化的海洋生态系统——珊瑚礁，依赖于刺胞动物宿主（珊瑚）与细胞内光合甲藻之间的功能性共生关系。这种内共生的分子和细胞机制尚未得到充分理解，部分原因是对珊瑚进行实验工作存在困难。小型海葵艾氏海葵为研究这些机制提供了一个易于处理的实验室模型。在此，我们报告艾氏海葵基因组的组装和分析，这将为未来的研究奠定基础，并揭示了几个可能是理解内共生进化和功能关键的特征。这些特征包括可能与共生功能相关的基因组重排和分类学上受限的基因、宿主对藻类衍生营养物质的依赖方面、一个可能参与动物 - 藻类相互作用的新的且扩展的刺胞动物特异性假定模式识别受体家族，以及广泛的谱系特异性水平基因转移。大量原核生物起源基因的整合，包括抗菌肽基因，大概反映了动物 - 藻类共生体与其原核微生物群落之间的密切关联。
