Background: Branchiopod crustaceans in the genus Daphnia are key model organisms for investigating interactions between genes and the environment. One major theme of research on Daphnia species has been the evolution of resistance to pathogens and parasites, but lack of knowledge of the Daphnia immune system has limited the study of immune responses. Here we provide a survey of the immune-related genome of D. pulex, derived from the newly completed genome sequence. Genes likely to be involved in innate immune responses were identified by comparison to homologues from other arthropods. For each candidate, the gene model was refined, and we conducted an analysis of sequence divergence from homologues from other taxa. Results and conclusion: We found that some immune pathways, in particular the TOLL pathway, are fairly well conserved between insects and Daphnia, while other elements, in particular antimicrobial peptides, could not be recovered from the genome sequence. We also found considerable variation in gene family copy number when comparing Daphnia to insects and present phylogenetic analyses to shed light on the evolution of a range of conserved immune gene families.
McTaggart, Seanna J., et al. "The components of the Daphnia pulex immune system as revealed by complete genome sequencing." BMC Genomics, vol. 10, no. 1, Dec. 2008. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2164-10-175
McTaggart, Seanna J., Conlon, Claire, Colbourne, John K., Blaxter, Mark L., & Little, Tom J. (2008). The components of the Daphnia pulex immune system as revealed by complete genome sequencing. BMC Genomics, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2164-10-175
McTaggart, Seanna J., Conlon, Claire, Colbourne, John K., et al., "The components of the Daphnia pulex immune system as revealed by complete genome sequencing," BMC Genomics 10, no. 1 (2008), https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2164-10-175
@article{osti_1626397,
author = {McTaggart, Seanna J. and Conlon, Claire and Colbourne, John K. and Blaxter, Mark L. and Little, Tom J.},
title = {The components of the Daphnia pulex immune system as revealed by complete genome sequencing},
annote = {Background: Branchiopod crustaceans in the genus Daphnia are key model organisms for investigating interactions between genes and the environment. One major theme of research on Daphnia species has been the evolution of resistance to pathogens and parasites, but lack of knowledge of the Daphnia immune system has limited the study of immune responses. Here we provide a survey of the immune-related genome of D. pulex, derived from the newly completed genome sequence. Genes likely to be involved in innate immune responses were identified by comparison to homologues from other arthropods. For each candidate, the gene model was refined, and we conducted an analysis of sequence divergence from homologues from other taxa. Results and conclusion: We found that some immune pathways, in particular the TOLL pathway, are fairly well conserved between insects and Daphnia, while other elements, in particular antimicrobial peptides, could not be recovered from the genome sequence. We also found considerable variation in gene family copy number when comparing Daphnia to insects and present phylogenetic analyses to shed light on the evolution of a range of conserved immune gene families.},
doi = {10.1186/1471-2164-10-175},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1626397},
journal = {BMC Genomics},
issn = {ISSN 1471-2164},
number = {1},
volume = {10},
place = {United States},
publisher = {Springer},
year = {2008},
month = {12}}