Whole genome sequencing of the cold-water coral Lophelia and related Anthozoans - impact on ancestral tumor development and apoptosis

The genome sequence of the cold-water coral Lophelia pertusa and related Anthozoans will provide an important contribution to the understanding of evolutionary history and cellular function. We have obtained whole genome sequences (25 to 300 X coverage) of the reef-building corals Lophelia pertusa (520 Mbp) and Madropora oculata, as well as the sea anemones Bolocera tuediae, Urticina eques, Hormathia digitata, and Anemonia viridis. For the two latter species we have genome and transcriptome resources of high quality, and for A. viridian we have investigated whole gene expression at ocean acidification conditions. In addition we have investigated mitogenomes and corresponding transcriptomes of various hexacorals (stony corals, sea anemones, colonial anemones, disc anemones, tube anemones) and octocorals, and have made surprising findings. These include gene rearrangements, mobile DNA, catalytic RNA, regulatory RNA and a novel intron splicing pathway.

Scleractinian corals and sea anemones are ancestral animals with simple tissue level organizations, and represent emerging model systems for environmental stress, and ancestral tumor development and apoptosis. We have performed whole genome sequencing of the cold-water coral Lophelia at 15X coverage at our in-house SOLiD sequencing facility and 3X coverage of 454 pyrosequencing, as well as whole transcriptome sequencing of several sea anemone species based on 454 pyrosequencing and their corresponding gen omes by SOLiD. Our major effort in this project is to complete the Lophelia genome sequencing at draft-grade resolution by combining the SOLiD, Ion PGM, and 454 deep sequencing technologies. Genome assembly, gene annotation, and gene expression regulation will be based on whole genome as well as whole transcriptome, microRNA, and epigenome sequenced from larval and adult stages. A similar approach on selected cold-water sea anemones (Urticina, Bolocera, Metridium, and Hormathia) as well as two related loc al Anthozoans (Alcyonium and Cerianthus) will be performed, but at some lower scale and coverage. The genomic recourses will be available to the public for further studies by the research community. The project aims to gain new insight on animal cold adap tation, climate change impact and environmental biomonitoring, and on basic molecular mechanisms in ancestral tumor development, gene regulation, and apoptosis.