Hak-Min Kim, Jessica A Weber, Nayoung Lee, Seung Gu Park, Yun Sung Cho, Youngjune Bhak, Nayun Lee, Yeonsu Jeon, Sungwon Jeon, Victor Luria, Amir Karger, Marc W Kirschner, Ye Jin Jo, Seonock Woo, Kyoungsoon Shin, Oksung Chung, Jae-Chun Ryu, Hyung-Soon Yim, Jung-Hyun Lee, Jeremy S Edwards, Andrea Manica, Jong Bhak, Seungshic Yum
BACKGROUND: Unique among cnidarians, jellyfish have remarkable morphological and biochemical innovations that allow them to actively hunt in the water column and were some of the first animals to become free-swimming. The class Scyphozoa, or true jellyfish, are characterized by a predominant medusa life-stage consisting of a bell and venomous tentacles used for hunting and defense, as well as using pulsed jet propulsion for mobility. Here, we present the genome of the giant Nomura's jellyfish (Nemopilema nomurai) to understand the genetic basis of these key innovations...
March 29, 2019: BMC Biology