From nerve net to nerve ring, nerve cord and brain—evolution of the nervous system

D Arendt, MA Tosches, H Marlow - Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2016 - nature.com
The puzzle of how complex nervous systems emerged remains unsolved. Comparative
studies of neurodevelopment in cnidarians and bilaterians suggest that this process began …

The deuterostome context of chordate origins

CJ Lowe, DN Clarke, DM Medeiros, DS Rokhsar… - Nature, 2015 - nature.com
Our understanding of vertebrate origins is powerfully informed by comparative morphology,
embryology and genomics of chordates, hemichordates and echinoderms, which together …

The sea cucumber genome provides insights into morphological evolution and visceral regeneration

X Zhang, L Sun, J Yuan, Y Sun, Y Gao, L Zhang… - PLoS …, 2017 - journals.plos.org
Apart from sharing common ancestry with chordates, sea cucumbers exhibit a unique
morphology and exceptional regenerative capacity. Here we present the complete genome …

The genetic factors of bilaterian evolution

P Heger, W Zheng, A Rottmann, KA Panfilio, T Wiehe - Elife, 2020 - elifesciences.org
The Cambrian explosion was a unique animal radiation~ 540 million years ago that
produced the full range of body plans across bilaterians. The genetic mechanisms …

Acoel single-cell atlas reveals expression dynamics and heterogeneity of adult pluripotent stem cells

RE Hulett, JO Kimura, DM Bolaños, YJ Luo… - Nature …, 2023 - nature.com
Adult pluripotent stem cell (aPSC) populations underlie whole-body regeneration in many
distantly-related animal lineages, but how the underlying cellular and molecular …

Foxl2 and its relatives are evolutionary conserved players in gonadal sex differentiation

S Bertho, J Pasquier, Q Pan, G Le Trionnaire… - Sexual …, 2016 - karger.com
Foxl2 is a member of the large family of Forkhead Box (Fox) domain transcription factors. It
emerged during the last 15 years as a key player in ovarian differentiation and oogenesis in …

Gene regulatory network that shaped the evolution of larval apical organ in Cnidaria

E Gilbert, J Craggs, V Modepalli - Molecular Biology and …, 2024 - academic.oup.com
Among non-bilaterian animals, a larval apical sensory organ with integrated neurons is only
found in cnidarians. Within cnidarians, an apical organ with a ciliary tuft is mainly found in …

Gene expression mapping of the neuroectoderm across phyla–conservation and divergence of early brain anlagen between insects and vertebrates

N Posnien, VS Hunnekuhl, G Bucher - Elife, 2023 - elifesciences.org
Gene expression has been employed for homologizing body regions across bilateria. The
molecular comparison of vertebrate and fly brains has led to a number of disputed homology …

Evolution of the bilaterian mouth and anus

C Nielsen, T Brunet, D Arendt - Nature ecology & evolution, 2018 - nature.com
It is widely held that the bilaterian tubular gut with mouth and anus evolved from a simple gut
with one major gastric opening. However, there is no consensus on how this happened. Did …

Genome-wide transcriptome profiling and spatial expression analyses identify signals and switches of development in tapeworms

PD Olson, M Zarowiecki, K James, A Baillie, G Bartl… - EvoDevo, 2018 - Springer
Background Tapeworms are agents of neglected tropical diseases responsible for
significant health problems and economic loss. They also exhibit adaptations to a parasitic …