Daphnia pulex

The Ecoresponsive Genome of Daphnia pulex

We describe the draft genome of the microcrustacean Daphnia pulex, which is only 200 megabases and contains at least 30,907 genes.

More than a third of Daphnia’s genes have no detectable homologs in any other available proteome, and the most amplified gene families are specific to the Daphnia lineage.

Daphnia-specific genes, including many additional loci within sequenced regions that are otherwise devoid of annotations, are the most responsive genes to ecological challenges.

Science 4 February 2011:
Vol. 331 no. 6017 pp. 555-561