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Section: Genomics
Topic: Evolution, Genetics/genomics

The genome sequence of the Montseny horsehair worm, Gordionus montsenyensis sp. nov., a key resource to investigate Ecdysozoa evolution

Eleftheriadi, Klara1  ; Guiglielmoni, Nadège2  ; Salces-Ortiz, Judit1; Vargas-Chavez, Carlos1; Martínez-Redondo, Gemma I.1; Gut, Marta3; Flot, Jean-François4, 5 ; Schmidt-Rhaesa, Andreas6; Fernández, Rosa1  
1 Metazoa Phylogenomics Lab, Biodiversity Program, Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Passeig marítim de la Barceloneta 37-49, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
2 Universität zu Köln, Institut für Zoologie, Zülpicher str. 47b, Cologne, Germany
3 Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico (CNAG), C/Baldiri Reixac 4, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
4 Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Department of Organismal Biology, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Av. F.D. Roosevelt 50, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
5 Interuniversity Institute of Bioinformatics in Brussels – (IB)², Brussels, Belgium
6 Centre for Taxonomy and Morphology, Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change, Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3, 20146 Hamburg, Germany

10.24072/pcjournal.381 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 4 (2024), article no. e32.

Get full text PDF Peer reviewed and recommended by PCI

Nematomorpha, also known as Gordiacea or Gordian worms, are a phylum of parasitic organisms that belong to the Ecdysozoa, a clade of invertebrate animals characterized by molting. They are one of the less scientifically studied animal phyla, and many aspects of their biology and evolution are still unknown, partially due to the lack of genomic resources for this phylum. As part of the European Reference Genome Atlas pilot effort to generate reference genomes for European biodiversity, we present the taxonomic description and chromosome-level genome assembly of a newly described species of Nematomorpha (Gordionus montsenyensis Schmidt-Rhaesa & Fernández sp. nov.). The final assembly has a total length of 288 Mb in 396 scaffolds with an N50 of 64.4 Mb, 97% of which is scaffolded into 5 pseudochromosomes. The circular mitochondrial genome was also assembled into a 15-kilobases sequence. Gene annotation predicted 10,320 protein-coding genes in the nuclear genome. In this study, we contribute a key genomic resource to not only explore the evolution of Ecdysozoa, but also to further our understanding on the genomic basis of parasitic lifestyles. In addition, we describe a species new to science from this enigmatic animal phyla.

Published online:
DOI: 10.24072/pcjournal.381
Type: Research article
Keywords: Nematomorpha, Gordian worms, reference genome
Eleftheriadi, Klara 1; Guiglielmoni, Nadège 2; Salces-Ortiz, Judit 1; Vargas-Chavez, Carlos 1; Martínez-Redondo, Gemma I. 1; Gut, Marta 3; Flot, Jean-François 4, 5; Schmidt-Rhaesa, Andreas 6; Fernández, Rosa 1

1 Metazoa Phylogenomics Lab, Biodiversity Program, Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Passeig marítim de la Barceloneta 37-49, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
2 Universität zu Köln, Institut für Zoologie, Zülpicher str. 47b, Cologne, Germany
3 Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico (CNAG), C/Baldiri Reixac 4, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
4 Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Department of Organismal Biology, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Av. F.D. Roosevelt 50, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
5 Interuniversity Institute of Bioinformatics in Brussels – (IB)², Brussels, Belgium
6 Centre for Taxonomy and Morphology, Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change, Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
License: CC-BY 4.0
Copyrights: The authors retain unrestricted copyrights and publishing rights 
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     author = {Eleftheriadi, Klara and Guiglielmoni, Nad\`ege and Salces-Ortiz, Judit and Vargas-Chavez, Carlos and Mart{\'\i}nez-Redondo, Gemma I. and Gut, Marta and Flot, Jean-Fran\c{c}ois and Schmidt-Rhaesa, Andreas and Fern\'andez, Rosa},
     title = {The genome sequence of the {Montseny} horsehair worm, {\protect\emph{Gordionus} montsenyensis} sp. nov., a key resource to investigate {Ecdysozoa} evolution},
     journal = {Peer Community Journal},
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Eleftheriadi, Klara; Guiglielmoni, Nadège; Salces-Ortiz, Judit; Vargas-Chavez, Carlos; Martínez-Redondo, Gemma I.; Gut, Marta; Flot, Jean-François; Schmidt-Rhaesa, Andreas; Fernández, Rosa. The genome sequence of the Montseny horsehair worm, Gordionus montsenyensis sp. nov., a key resource to investigate Ecdysozoa evolution. Peer Community Journal, Volume 4 (2024), article  no. e32. doi : 10.24072/pcjournal.381. https://peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10.24072/pcjournal.381/

Peer reviewed and recommended by PCI : 10.24072/pci.genomics.100252

Conflict of interest of the recommender and peer reviewers:
The recommender in charge of the evaluation of the article and the reviewers declared that they have no conflict of interest (as defined in the code of conduct of PCI) with the authors or with the content of the article.

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