RT Journal
A1 Coghlan, Avril
A1 Wolfe, Kenneth H.
T1 Fourfold Faster Rate of Genome Rearrangement in Nematodes Than in Drosophila

JF Genome Research 
JO Genome Research 
YR 2002 
FD June 01 
VO 12 
IS 6 
SP 857 
OP 867 
DO 10.1101/gr.172702 
UL http://genome.cshlp.org/content/12/6/857.abstract 
AB We compared the genome of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans to 13% of that of Caenorhabditis briggsae, identifying 252 conserved segments along their chromosomes. We detected 517 chromosomal rearrangements, with the ratio of translocations to inversions to transpositions being ∼1:1:2. We estimate that the species diverged 50–120 million years ago, and that since then there have been 4030 rearrangements between their whole genomes. Our estimate of the rearrangement rate, 0.4–1.0 chromosomal breakages/Mb per Myr, is at least four times that of Drosophila, which was previously reported to be the fastest rate among eukaryotes. The breakpoints of translocations are strongly associated with dispersed repeats and gene family members in the C. elegansgenome.[The following institution kindly provided reagents, samples or unpublished information as indicated in the paper: Genome Sequencing Center, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis.]