• MRTF specifies a muscle-like contractile module in Porifera 

      Colgren, Jeffrey John; Nichols, S.A. (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2022)
      Muscle-based movement is a hallmark of animal biology, but the evolutionary origins of myocytes are unknown. Although believed to lack muscles, sponges (Porifera) are capable of coordinated whole-body contractions that ...
    • The premetazoan ancestry of the synaptic toolkit and appearance of first neurons 

      Colgren, Jeffrey John; Burkhardt, Pawel (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2022)
      Neurons, especially when coupled with muscles, allow animals to interact with and navigate through their environment in ways unique to life on earth. Found in all major animal lineages except sponges and placozoans, nervous ...
    • Syncytial nerve net in a ctenophore adds insights on the evolution of nervous systems 

      Burkhardt, Pawel; Colgren, Jeffrey John; Medhus, Astrid; Digel, Leonid; Naumann, Benjamin; Soto Angel, Joan-Josep; Nordmann, Eva-Lena; Sachkova, Mariia; Kittelmann, Maike (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2023)
      A fundamental breakthrough in neurobiology has been the formulation of the neuron doctrine by Santiago Ramón y Cajal, which stated that the nervous system is composed of discrete cells. Electron microscopy later confirmed ...