Skip Navigation



Briefings in Functional Genomics Advance Access published online on June 23, 2008
Briefings in Functional Genomics, doi:10.1093/bfgp/eln022
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
7/3/211    most recent
eln022v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Thomas, J. H.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Thomas, J. H.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Genome evolution in Caenorhabditis

James H. Thomas

Corresponding author. James H. Thomas, Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA. Tel: +1 206 543 7877; E-mail: jht{at}u.washington.edu

Since the completion of the Caenorhabditis elegans genome sequence 10 years ago, efforts of the large community of C. elegans geneticists have resulted in a high-quality annotation of the structures and sequence relatedness of nearly all the protein encoding and RNA genes. Based on increasingly accurate gene counts in other species, it now appears that C. elegans has more functional genes than most insects and approximately the same number as most mammals. In the last few years, draft genome sequences for several other nematodes have been published (C. briggsae and Brugia malayi) or publicly released (C. remanei, C. brenneri, C. japonica, Pristionchus pacificus, Trichinella spiralis and Haemonchus contortus). Comparisons of gene content within the phylum and to other phyla reveal complex patterns of genome evolution. These patterns include substantial numbers of genes conserved across all the major metazoan phyla (core metazoan genes) and many nematode-specific genes and gene families. Nematode-specific genes are located predominantly on autosomal arms, which also have higher recombination rates. It appears that evolutionary innovations occur mostly in these regions, probably facilitated by higher recombination. Few of these genes have gross phenotypes when knocked down by RNAi, suggesting that many of them function in specific aspects of nematode biology that were not tested, including chemosensation, pathogen response and xenobiotic detoxification.

Keywords: Caenorhabditis, genome, evolution, gene function, population diversity


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Mol Biol EvolHome page
J. Nehyba, R. Hrdlickova, and H. R. Bose
Dynamic Evolution of Immune System Regulators: The History of the Interferon Regulatory Factor Family
Mol. Biol. Evol., November 1, 2009; 26(11): 2539 - 2550.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Mol Biol EvolHome page
A. D. Cutter, A. Dey, and R. L. Murray
Evolution of the Caenorhabditis elegans Genome
Mol. Biol. Evol., June 1, 2009; 26(6): 1199 - 1234.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.