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Access through your institution Buy or subscribe Amphioxus (also known as a lancelet) is a member of the cephalochordates, which, together with tunicates and vertebrates, make up the

chordate phylum. The three groups diverged from each other about 550 million years ago, but until now the order in which they diverged has not been certain. Putnam _et al_. obtained the

sequence of the 520 Mb genome by shotgun sequencing from a single male amphioxus. As genetic and physical maps are not available, the sequences could not be assigned to the 19 amphioxus

chromosomes; however, the assembled scaffolds were sufficiently large to provide information about synteny with other species. The genome contains 21,900 protein-coding genes, and also the

highest level of polymorphism yet found in an organism whose genome has been sequenced, implying a large effective population size. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your

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* Learn about institutional subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support REFERENCES ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER * Putnam, N. H. et al. The amphioxus genome and the evolution of the

chordate karyotype. _Nature_ 453, 1064–1071 (2008) Article  CAS  Google Scholar  FURTHER READING * Holland, L. Z. et al. The amphioxus genome illuminates vertebrate origins and

cephalochordate biology. _Genome Res._ 18 Jun 2008 (10.1101/gr.073676.107) * Huang, S. et al. Genomic analysis of the immune gene repertoire of amphioxus reveals extraordinary innate

complexity and diversity. _Genome Res._ 18 Jun 2008 (10.1101/gr.076208.108) * Yu, J.-K., Meulemans, D., McKeown, S., & Bronner-Fraser, M. Insights from the amphioxus genome on the origin

of vertebrate neural crest. _Genome Res._ 18 Jun 2008 (10.1101/gr.069674.107) * Canestro, C., Yokoi, H. & Postlethwait, J. H. Evolutionary developmental biology and genomics. _Nature

Rev. Genet._ 8, 932–942 (2007) Article  CAS  Google Scholar  Download references Authors * Patrick Goymer View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Goymer, P. Chordate origins. _Nat Rev Genet_ 9, 571 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg2419 Download

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