Faculty of Natural Sciences, Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA, UK.
International Marine Centre, Loc. Sa Mardini snc, 09170, Torre Grande, OR, Italy.
BMC Genomics. 2022 May 2;23(1):340. doi: 10.1186/s12864-022-08575-9.
Molluscs remain one significantly under-represented taxa amongst available genomic resources, despite being the second-largest animal phylum and the recent advances in genomes sequencing technologies and genome assembly techniques. With the present work, we want to contribute to the growing efforts by filling this gap, presenting a new high-quality reference genome for Mytilus edulis and investigating the evolutionary history within the Mytilidae family, in relation to other species in the class Bivalvia.
Here we present, for the first time, the discovery of multiple whole genome duplication events in the Mytilidae family and, more generally, in the class Bivalvia. In addition, the calculation of evolution rates for three species of the Mytilinae subfamily sheds new light onto the taxa evolution and highlights key orthologs of interest for the study of Mytilus species divergences.
The reference genome presented here will enable the correct identification of molecular markers for evolutionary, population genetics, and conservation studies. Mytilidae have the capability to become a model shellfish for climate change adaptation using genome-enabled systems biology and multi-disciplinary studies of interactions between abiotic stressors, pathogen attacks, and aquaculture practises.
尽管软体动物是第二大动物门，且基因组测序技术和基因组组装技术最近取得了进展，但它们在可用基因组资源中仍然是一个显著代表性不足的类群。通过目前的工作，我们希望通过填补这一空白来为日益增长的努力做出贡献，提供贻贝属的新的高质量参考基因组，并研究与双壳纲其他物种相关的贻贝科家族的进化历史。
在这里，我们首次发现了贻贝科家族，更普遍地说，在双壳纲中存在多次全基因组复制事件。此外，对贻贝亚科的三个物种的进化率的计算为贻贝物种分化的研究提供了新的视角，并突出了感兴趣的关键直系同源基因。
这里呈现的参考基因组将能够正确识别进化、群体遗传学和保护研究的分子标记。贻贝科有能力利用基于基因组的系统生物学和对非生物胁迫、病原体攻击和水产养殖实践之间相互作用的多学科研究，成为适应气候变化的模式贝类。
