Conservation of bilaterian genome structure is the exception, not the rule

2025/08/18 by Thomas D. Lewin, Isabel Jiah-Yih Liao, Yi‐Jyun Luo · 1 voice · 9 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies #Chromosomal and Genetic Variations #Protist diversity and phylogeny

paper · pdf · doi:10.1186/s13059-025-03732-1

Abstract

Species from diverse animal lineages have conserved groups of orthologous genes together on the same chromosome for over half a billion years since the last common ancestor of bilaterians. Although notable exceptions exist, the stability of chromosome-scale gene linkages has been proposed to be the norm among animals. Here we test this hypothesis across species from 52 bilaterian classes representing 15 different phyla. Contrary to expectations, we find that cases of genome structure conservation are rare, taxonomically restricted and unrepresentative of the general state of bilaterian genomes. Genome restructuring correlates with increased rates of protein sequence evolution and may be an underappreciated factor driving animal adaptation and diversification.

Citations

• Fusion, fission, and scrambling of the bilaterian genome in Bryozoa

Cited by

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• Brachiopod genome unveils the evolution of BMP signalling in bilaterian body patterning. [europepmc]
• Transposon Ecology and the Octopus Genome. [europepmc]
• A chromosome-level assembly and functional genomic resources for the model annelid Capitella teleta [europepmc]
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Discussions

• Delighted to share the peer-reviewed version of our study led by @tomlewin.bsky.social now out in Genome Biology @bmc.springernature.com! We analyzed 64 chromosome-level genomes across 15 animal phyla [bsky, 95 points, 6 comments]

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