Xenacoelomorpha, a Key Group to Understand Bilaterian Evolution: Morphological and Molecular Perspectives

Jondelius, Ulf; Raikova, Olga I.; Martinez, Pedro

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-30363-1_14

Cited by 15 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 105 publications

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“…Hofstenia are hermaphroditic marine worms (Achatz et al, 2013;Jondelius, Raikova and Martinez, 2019) that produce accessible embryos, which develop and hatch into juveniles, which become sexually mature in 4-6 weeks (Fig. 1B).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transgenesis in the acoel worm Hofstenia miamia

Ricci

Srivastava

2021

Preprint

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The acoel worm Hofstenia miamia, which can replace tissue lost to injury via differentiation of a population of stem cells, has emerged as a new research organism for studying regeneration. To enhance the depth of mechanistic studies in this system, we devised a protocol for microinjection into embryonic cells that resulted in stable transgene integration into the genome and generated animals with tissue-specific fluorescent transgene expression in epidermis, gut, and muscle. We demonstrate that transgenic Hofstenia are amenable to the isolation of specific cell types, detailed investigations of regeneration, tracking of photoconverted molecules, and live imaging. Further, our stable transgenic lines revealed new insights into the biology of Hofstenia, unprecedented details of cell morphology and the organization of muscle as a cellular scaffold for other tissues. Our work positions Hofstenia as a powerful system with unparalleled tools for mechanistic investigations of development, whole-body regeneration, and stem cell biology.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transgenesis in the acoel worm Hofstenia miamia

Ricci

Srivastava

2021

Preprint

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“…Nevertheless, the high morphological disparity present within extant xenacoelomorphs introduces some uncertainty about the plesiomorphic status of many features. Their nervous systems, for example, are extremely varied (Jondelius et al, 2019) and the presence of eyes in their last common ancestor can not be established with confidence (Haszprunar, 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring genome gene content and morphological analysis to test recalcitrant nodes in the animal phylogeny

Juravel

Porras

Höhna

et al. 2021

Preprint

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An accurate phylogeny of animals is needed to clarify their evolution, ecology, and impact on shaping the biosphere. Although multi-gene alignments of up to several hundred thousand amino acids are nowadays routinely used to test hypotheses of animal relationships, some nodes towards the root of the animal phylogeny are proving hard to resolve. While the relationships of the non-bilaterian lineages, primarily sponges (Porifera) and comb jellies (Ctenophora), have received much attention since more than a decade, controversies about the phylogenetic position of the worm-like bilaterian lineage Xenacoelomorpha and the monophyly of the “Superphylum” Deuterostomia have more recently emerged. Here we independently analyse novel genome gene content and morphological datasets to assess patterns of phylogenetic congruence with previous amino-acid derived phylogenetic hypotheses. Using statistical hypothesis testing, we show that both our datasets very strongly support sponges as the sister group of all the other animals, Xenoacoelomorpha as the sister group of the other Bilateria, and largely support monophyletic Deuterostomia. Based on these results, we conclude that the last common animal ancestor may have been a simple, filter-feeding organism without a nervous system and muscles, while the last common ancestor of Bilateria might have been a small, acoelomate-like worm without a through gut.

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“…The example of sponges clearly demonstrates the intraphylum plasticity of WBR and highlights the importance of studying more related models. This may be the case for acoels too, as they are known to evolve relatively fast [74] and to harbor many derived characters among Xenacoelomorphs, such as the organization of body muscles, or the presence of epidermal eyespots [75,76]. Consequently, acoels alone cannot be taken as a proxy for Xenacoelomorpha and ancestral reconstruction of bilaterian WBR will not be possible without exploring anatomical, cellular and molecular diversity across Xenacoelomorpha.…”

Section: Acoels and Planarians: Lessons From Faraway Cousinsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Hazards of Regeneration: From Morgan’s Legacy to Evo-Devo

Sinigaglia

Alié

Tiozzo

2022

Methods in Molecular Biology

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In his prominent book Regeneration (1901), T.H. Morgan’s collected and synthesized theoretical and experimental findings from a diverse array of regenerating animals and plants. Through his endeavor, he introduced a new way to study regeneration and its evolution, setting a conceptual framework that still guides today’s research and that embraces the contemporary evolutionary and developmental approaches.In the first part of the chapter, we summarize Morgan’s major tenets and use it as a narrative thread to advocate interpreting regenerative biology through the theoretical tools provided by evolution and developmental biology, but also to highlight potential caveats resulting from the rapid proliferation of comparative studies and from the expansion of experimental laboratory models. In the second part, we review some experimental evo-devo approaches, highlighting their power and some of their interpretative dangers. Finally, in order to further understand the evolution of regenerative abilities, we portray an adaptive perspective on the evolution of regeneration and suggest a framework for investigating the adaptive nature of regeneration.

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Xenacoelomorpha, a Key Group to Understand Bilaterian Evolution: Morphological and Molecular Perspectives

Cited by 15 publications

References 105 publications

Transgenesis in the acoel worm Hofstenia miamia

Transgenesis in the acoel worm Hofstenia miamia

Exploring genome gene content and morphological analysis to test recalcitrant nodes in the animal phylogeny

The Hazards of Regeneration: From Morgan’s Legacy to Evo-Devo

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