Evolutionary patterns and repeated adaptive strategies of deep-sea anemones.

Deep-sea anemones show repeated dismantling of circadian genes and gene losses, with 13 genomes revealing adaptations to depths of 432–6,000 meters.

• Why it matters: Understanding how deep-sea organisms adapt at the genomic level fills a critical knowledge gap about survival strategies in extreme environments and evolutionary processes in marine life.
• What they did: Researchers assembled genomes and transcriptomes from 15 species across a broad depth range, analyzing gene losses, amino acid substitutions, and gene family expansions related to environmental adaptation.
• The result: Findings reveal a "loss-optimization-innovation" pattern, with gene losses reducing circadian regulation and meiotic capacity, while specific molecular changes enhance enzyme function and physiological resilience in deep-sea conditions.