Abstract
BackgroundArthropods comprise the largest and most diverse phylum on Earth and play vital roles in nearly every ecosystem. Their diversity stems in part from variations on a conserved body plan, resulting from and recorded in adaptive changes in the genome. Dissection of the genomic record of sequence change enables broad questions regarding genome evolution to be addressed, even across hyper-diverse taxa within arthropods.ResultsUsing 76 whole genome sequences representing 21 orders spanning more than 500 million years of arthropod evolution, we document changes in gene and protein domain content and provide temporal and phylogenetic context for interpreting these innovations. We identify many novel gene families that arose early in the evolution of arthropods and during the diversification of insects into modern orders. We reveal unexpected variation in patterns of DNA methylation across arthropods and examples of gene family and protein domain evolution coincident with the appearance of notable phenotypic and physiological adaptations such as flight, metamorphosis, sociality, and chemoperception.ConclusionsThese analyses demonstrate how large-scale comparative genomics can provide broad new insights into the genotype to phenotype map and generate testable hypotheses about the evolution of animal diversity.
Highlights
Arthropods comprise the largest and most diverse phylum on Earth and play vital roles in nearly every ecosystem
This phylogeny is mostly consistent with previous arthropod phylogenies [8–10], with the exception being that we recover a monophyletic Crustacea, rather than the generally accepted paraphyletic nature of Crustacea with respect to Hexapoda; the difference is likely due to our restricted taxon sampling
We examined the rates of three types of genomic change: (i) amino acid substitutions, (ii) gene duplications and gene losses, and (iii) protein domain rearrangements, emergence, and loss
Summary
Arthropods comprise the largest and most diverse phylum on Earth and play vital roles in nearly every ecosystem Their diversity stems in part from variations on a conserved body plan, resulting from and recorded in adaptive changes in the genome. Arthropods (chelicerates, myriapods, crustaceans, and hexapods) constitute the most species-rich and diverse phylum on Earth, having adapted, innovated, and expanded into all major habitats within all major ecosystems. They are found as carnivores, detritivores, herbivores, and parasites. As major components of the world’s biomass, their diversity and ubiquity lead naturally to significant interactions with humanity, as crop pests, disease vectors, food sources, pollinators, and synanthropes Despite their diversity, arthropods share a deeply conserved and highly modular body plan. The winged insects (Pterygota), took to the skies, bearing up to two pairs of wings as outgrowths of that exoskeleton
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