Evolution Meetings 2011: Comparative Genome Evolution

Although the A. carolinensis genome is not yet published, it is already being widely used in comparative genomic studies. In a very interesting talk, Matt Fujita reported on the GC content of the anole genome in comparison to other taxa, with special focus on bird and mammal genomes. It turns out that the anole genome differs in many interesting respects. One particular focus was on isochores, which are long stretches of the genome with high GC content. It turns out that the anole genome contains a substantially lower proportion of isochores, and that the distribution of GC content is much more homogeneous across the genome.