Still waters run deep in large-scale genome rearrangements of morphologically conservative Polyplacophora

A major question in animal evolution is how genotypic and phenotypic changes are related, and another is when and whether ancient gene order is conserved in living clades. Chitons, the molluscan class Polyplacophora, retain a body plan and general morphology apparently little changed since the Palaeozoic. We present a comparative analysis of five reference quality genomes, including four de novo assemblies, covering all major chiton clades, and an updated phylogeny for the phylum. We constructed 20 ancient molluscan linkage groups (MLGs) and show that these are relatively conserved in bivalve karyotypes, but in chitons they are subject to re-ordering, rearrangement, fusion, or partial duplication and vary even between congeneric species. The largest number of novel fusions is in the most plesiomorphic clade Lepidopleurida, and the chitonid Liolophura japonica has a partial genome duplication, extending the occurrence of large-scale gene duplication within Mollusca. The extreme and dynamic genome rearrangements in this class stands in contrast to most other animals, demonstrating that chitons have overcome evolutionary constraints acting on other animal groups. The apparently conservative phenome of chitons belies rapid and extensive changes in genome.