Scientists map wood-eating clam's genes to unlock deep-sea ecosystem secrets
Researchers have sequenced the complete genome of Xylophaga dorsalis, a deep-sea bivalve that digests sunken wood through bacterial partnerships. The 451-million base pair blueprint could reveal how marine organisms adapt to extreme environments and may inform biotechnology applications in waste decomposition and industrial fermentation.
Originaltitel: ERGA-BGE reference genome of Xylophaga dorsalis - a common deep-sea wood-boring bivalve with Atlantic-Mediterranean distribution
<ns3:p> <ns3:italic>Xylophaga dorsalis</ns3:italic> is a common Atlantic-Mediterranean mollusc that plays a crucial role in deep-sea habitats, where it digests wood that reaches the seabed through a unique symbiosis with specialised bacteria. The reference genome of <ns3:italic>X. dorsalis</ns3:italic> thus offers a crucial resource for uncovering the genetic basis of the species adaptability to wood bore in deep-water ecosystems. The entirety of the genome sequence was assembled into 18 contiguous chromosomal pseudomolecules (superscaffolds) and 1 mitochondrial genome. This chromosome-level assembly encompasses 0.451 Gb, composed of 1,259 contigs and 320 scaffolds, with contig and scaffold N50 values of 1.30 Mb and 25.4 Mb, respectively. The genome assembly encodes 19,441 protein-coding genes (34,405 transcripts) and 6,716 non-coding genes. </ns3:p>