WIKIMEDIA, ALEX GILTJES
Species: Sea anemone (Aiptasia)
Genome size: approx. 258 million base pairs
In the quest to develop a model system to study symbiotic corals under stress, an international team led by scientists at Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah University of Science and Technology sequenced the genome of the sea anemone Aiptasia to provide a foundation for future research. The team’s results were published online last month (August 31) in PNAS.
Some Aiptasia species are viewed as pests by coral reef aquarium keepers, but for scientists, the anemones’ hardy nature and fast growth rate make them easy to keep in a lab for study. Aiptasia is a globally distributed sea anemone that, like coral, typically contains symbiotic photosynthetic algae.
In its genome, the researchers discovered genes related to ...
