Microsatellite abundance across the Anthozoa and Hydrozoa in the phylum Cnidaria

作者：Ruiz Ramos Dannise V^*; Baums Iliana B

来源：BMC Genomics, 2014, 15(1): 939.

DOI：10.1186/1471-2164-15-939

• Cnidaria
• Microsatellites
• Ancestral metazoan
• Simple sequence repeats
• Comparative genomics

Background: Microsatellite loci have high mutation rates and thus are indicative of mutational processes within the genome. By concentrating on the symbiotic and aposymbiotic cnidarians, we investigated if microsatellite abundances follow a phylogenetic or ecological pattern. Individuals from eight species were shotgun sequenced using 454 GS-FLX Titanium technology. Sequences from the three available cnidarian genomes (Nematostella vectensis, Hydra magnipapillata and Acropora digitifera) were added to the analysis for a total of eleven species representing two classes, three subclasses and eight orders within the phylum Cnidaria.
Results: Trinucleotide and tetranucleotide repeats were the most abundant motifs, followed by hexa-and dinucleotides. Pentanucleotides were the least abundant motif in the data set. Hierarchical clustering and log likelihood ratio tests revealed a weak relationship between phylogeny and microsatellite content. Further, comparisons between cnidaria harboring intracellular dinoflagellates and those that do not, show microsatellite coverage is higher in the latter group.
Conclusions: Our results support previous studies that found tri- and tetranucleotides to be the most abundant motifs in invertebrates. Differences in microsatellite coverage and composition between symbiotic and non-symbiotic cnidaria suggest the presence/absence of dinoflagellates might place restrictions on the host genome.

• 出版日期2014-10-27