Developing Monosiga brevicollis as a model to study choanoflagellate immune responses reveals that the innate immune protein STING mediates responses to cyclic dinucleotides in choanoflagellates, providing insight into the evolution of STING signaling on the animal stem lineage.

The genomes of animal progenitors evolved as mosaics of old, new, rearranged, and repurposed protein domains, genes and pathways and paved the way for the origin and evolution of animals.

Cryo-electron microscopy reveals previously undescribed structural features of choanoflagellate flagella and provides new insights into flagellar evolution.

The establishment of forward genetics in S. rosetta reveals the first gene known to be required for choanoflagellate multicellular development.

Genome editing in the choanoflagellate Salpingoeca rosetta opens newfound possibilities to functionally probe choanoflagellate genes that may illuminate the origin of their closest relatives, the animals.

The colony-forming choanoflagellate Salpingoeca rosetta is capable of moving towards oxygen using logarithmic sensing of oxygen concentrations and a navigation strategy that involves random movements.

New sequence data from choanoflagellates improves our understanding of the genetic changes that occurred along the branch of the evolutionary tree that gave rise to animals.

The closest living relatives of animals, the choanoflagellates, switch from a flagellate to an amoeboid phenotype under confinement.

A genetic screen reveals that two predicted glycosyltransferases promote rosette development and prevent cell clumping in one of the closest living relatives of animals, the choanoflagellate S. rosetta.

The development of colonies of cells in choanoflagellates, water-dwelling organisms that feed on bacteria, is triggered by the presence of very low concentrations of a lipid molecule produced by certain types of bacteria.