Chitin is the second most abundant biopolymer and functions as the main structural
component in a variety of living organisms. In nature, chitin rarely occurs in a pure form, but …

The growing demand for new, sophisticated, multifunctional materials has brought natural
structural composites into focus, since they underwent a substantial optimization during long …

Plasmodiophora brassicae causes clubroot, a major disease of Brassica oil and vegetable
crops worldwide. P. brassicae is a Plasmodiophorid, obligate biotrophic protist in the …

The Opisthokonta are a eukaryotic supergroup divided in two main lineages: animals and
related protistan taxa, and fungi and their allies [1, 2]. There is a great diversity of lifestyles …

Chitin is a linear polysaccharide of the amino sugar N-acetyl glucosamine. It is present in the
extracellular matrix of a variety of invertebrates including sponges, molluscs, nematodes and …

The evolutionary origins of lingulid brachiopods and their calcium phosphate shells have
been obscure. Here we decode the 425-Mb genome of Lingula anatina to gain insights into …

Abstract The Scaly-foot Snail, Chrysomallon squamiferum, presents a combination of
biomineralised features, reminiscent of enigmatic early fossil taxa with complex shells and …

Chitin, a biopolymer of N-acetylglucosamine, is abundant in invertebrates and fungi and is
an important structural molecule [1, 2]. There has been a longstanding belief that vertebrates …

Mammalian gut microbiota are integral to host health. However, how this association began
remains unclear. We show that in basal chordates the gut space is radially …

Regeneration, the ability to restore body parts after an injury or an amputation, is a
widespread but highly variable and complex phenomenon in animals. While having …