Interest in the ecology, biology and evolution of amphioxus is growing, and the availability of several species is helping to improve our understanding of chordate evolution.
An in silico analysis of gap junction proteins supports the hypothesis that connexins replaced the primordial innexins in chordate gap junctions due to an evolutionary bottleneck.
Identification and functional characterization of the first non-chordate kisspeptin neuropeptide system in the sea cucumber indicates the ancient origin of the intracellular signaling and physiological functions of this molecular system.
Wnt/beta-catenin signaling is essential for the specification of dorsal cell fate in amphioxus, suggesting a common evolutionary origin for the formation of the dorsal organizer in chordates.
Damilola Pinheiro, Marie-Anne Mawhin ... Kevin J Woollard
In-silico modeling of gene and protein emergence reveals how colony-stimulating factors contributed to the evolution and functional adaptions observed in mammalian neutrophils.
Serial-section EM analysis uncovers the CNS connectome of a Ciona larva, the second of any entire nervous system, and exposes left-right asymmetries in its synaptic circuits.
Matthew J Kourakis, Cezar Borba ... William C Smith
The ascidian Ciona integrates visual information from two photoreceptor types through convergent excitatory and disinhibitory circuits, thereby evoking swim behaviors.
Research carried out in the simple chordate Ciona has elucidated the regulatory interplay between two evolutionarily conserved transcription factors, Brachyury and Xbp1, and has shed new light on their roles in the formation of the notochord.
