The first genome of a myriapod, the geophilomorph centipede Strigamia maritama, has been sequenced.
Arthropods are the most species-rich group of animals on Earth. Of the four main arthropod groups alive today, insects, crustaceans, chelicerates and myriapods, it is the latter (which includes centipedes and millipedes) for which the genome had not been sequenced.
The team found that the centipede genome is less than a tenth the size of a human’s, and has around two-thirds the number of genes. The centipede genome is more conserved than that of many other arthropods, such as the fruit fly, with less gene loss and scrambling. This suggests that centipedes have evolved slowly from their common ancestor and should allow researchers to draw comparisons between very different animals, which are not obvious when working with fruit flies or other fast evolving insects.
See more at: amazing-feet-of-science-researchers-sequence-the-centipede-genome
The results are published in the journal PLOS Biology.
A commentary piece can be read here.
The full article is free to download here.
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