本期Nature Communications报告了“中华全蝎”（东亚地区一种常见蝎子）的基因组序列草稿。该基因组突显了这种蝎子与其猎物相关的遗传特征，包括夜行行为、进食特征以及去毒功能等等，为研究节肢动物的适应性和演化提供了一个宝贵资源。
蝎子以“活化石”著称，代表着一个独特类型的节肢动物，因为它们保持了其古代节肢动物祖先的原始解剖特征。因此，它们为研究这类动物的演化提供了一个关键模型。Wenxin Li及同事对第一个蝎子基因组进行了测序，以寻找有可能负责其长期生存的基因。
该小组识别出32016个蛋白编码基因，为在关键生存机制（其中包括毒液的产生、对光做出反应的能力和对来自其猎物的有害毒素的消化等）的调控中所涉及的基因的演化提供了证据。他们提出，虽然蝎子比昆虫所发生的生理及形态变化要少，但它们基因组的多样化程度可能要大得多。这些结果有可能挑战认为蝎子的演化比昆虫更为保守这样一个普遍认识，同时为研究节肢动物提供一个独特的适应性模型。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐的英文摘要
Nature Communications doi:10.1038/ncomms3602
The genome of Mesobuthus martensii reveals a unique adaptation model of arthropods
Zhijian Cao，Yao Yu，Yingliang Wu，Pei Hao，Zhiyong Di，Yawen He，Zongyun Chen，Weishan Yang，Zhiyong Shen，Xiaohua He，Jia Sheng，Xiaobo Xu，Bohu Pan，Jing Feng，Xiaojuan Yang，Wei Hong，Wenjuan Zhao，Zhongjie Li，Kai Huang，Tian Li et al.
Representing a basal branch of arachnids， scorpions are known as ‘living fossils’ that maintain an ancient anatomy and are adapted to have survived extreme climate changes. Here we report the genome sequence of Mesobuthus martensii， containing 32，016 protein-coding genes， the most among sequenced arthropods. Although M. martensii appears to evolve conservatively， it has a greater gene family turnover than the insects that have undergone diverse morphological and physiological changes， suggesting the decoupling of the molecular and morphological evolution in scorpions. Underlying the long-term adaptation of scorpions is the expansion of the gene families enriched in basic metabolic pathways， signalling pathways， neurotoxins and cytochrome P450， and the different dynamics of expansion between the shared and the scorpion lineage-specific gene families. Genomic and transcriptomic analyses further illustrate the important genetic features associated with prey， nocturnal behaviour， feeding and detoxification. The M. martensii genome reveals a unique adaptation model of arthropods， offering new insights into the genetic bases of the living fossils.
