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Calcium signaling in tunicate development
(Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2024)A comparative overview is provided of Ca2+ signaling and its potential mechanistic roles during development in tunicates. As background, the review presents an introduction to tunicate taxonomy, and then a general overview ... -
Combinatorial Wnt signaling landscape during brachiopod anteroposterior patterning
(Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2024)Background Wnt signaling pathways play crucial roles in animal development. They establish embryonic axes, specify cell fates, and regulate tissue morphogenesis from the early embryo to organogenesis. It is becoming ... -
Cellular remodeling and JAK inhibition promote zygotic gene expression in the Ciona germline
(Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2024)Transcription control is a major determinant of cell fate decisions in somatic tissues. By contrast, early germline fate specification in numerous vertebrate and invertebrate species relies extensively on RNA-level regulation, ... -
Pax3/7 gene function in Oikopleura dioica supports a neuroepithelial-like origin for its house-making Fol territory
(Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2024)Larvacean tunicates feature a spectacular innovation not seen in other animals - the trunk oikoplastic epithelium (OE). This epithelium produces a house, a large and complex extracellular structure used for filtering and ... -
The ion channel Anoctamin 10/TMEM16K coordinates organ morphogenesis across scales in the urochordate notochord
(Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2024)During embryonic development, tissues and organs are gradually shaped into their functional morphologies through a series of spatiotemporally tightly orchestrated cell behaviors. A highly conserved organ shape across ... -
Polymodal sensory perception drives settlement and metamorphosis of Ciona larvae
(Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2024)The Earth’s oceans brim with an incredible diversity of microscopic lifeforms, including motile planktonic larvae, whose survival critically depends on effective dispersal in the water column and subsequent exploration of ... -
Extreme genome scrambling in marine planktonic Oikopleura dioica cryptic species
(Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2024)Genome structural variations within species are rare. How selective constraints preserve gene order and chromosome structure is a central question in evolutionary biology that remains unsolved. Our sequencing of several ... -
Constitutive activity of ionotropic glutamate receptors via hydrophobic substitutions in the ligand-binding domain
(Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2024)Neurotransmitter ligands electrically excite neurons by activating ionotropic glutamate receptor (iGluR) ion channels. Knowledge of the iGluR amino acid residues that dominate ligand-induced activation would enable the ... -
Structure-primed embedding on the transcription factor manifold enables transparent model architectures for gene regulatory network and latent activity inference
(Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2024)Background Modeling of gene regulatory networks (GRNs) is limited due to a lack of direct measurements of genome-wide transcription factor activity (TFA) making it difficult to separate covariance and regulatory ... -
Structural basis for excitatory neuropeptide signaling
(Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2024)Rapid signaling between neurons is mediated by ligand-gated ion channels, cell-surface proteins with an extracellular ligand-binding domain and a membrane-spanning ion channel domain. The degenerin/epithelial sodium channel ... -
Gene networks and the evolution of olfactory organs, eyes, hair cells and motoneurons: a view encompassing lancelets, tunicates and vertebrates
(Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2024-03-12)Key developmental pathways and gene networks underlie the formation of sensory cell types and structures involved in chemosensation, vision and mechanosensation, and of the efferents these sensory inputs can activate. We ... -
A population of Vasa2 and Piwi1 expressing cells generates germ cells and neurons in a sea anemone
(Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2024)Germline segregation, essential for protecting germ cells against mutations, occurs during early embryogenesis in vertebrates, insects and nematodes. Highly regenerative animals (e.g., cnidarians), however, retain stem ... -
Do DOM quality and origin affect the uptake and accumulation of a lipid-soluble contaminant in a filter feeding ascidian species (Ciona) that can target small particle size classes?
(Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2024)The widely reported increase of terrestrial dissolved organic matter (terrDOM) in northern latitude coastal areas (“coastal darkening”) can impact contaminant dynamics in affected systems. One potential impact is based on ... -
The cellular basis of feeding-dependent body size plasticity in sea anemones
(Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2024)Many animals share a lifelong capacity to adapt their growth rates and body sizes to changing environmental food supplies. However, the cellular and molecular basis underlying this plasticity remains only poorly understood. ... -
Loss of activation by GABA in vertebrate delta ionotropic glutamate receptors
(Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2024)Ionotropic glutamate receptors (iGluRs) mediate excitatory signals between cells by binding neurotransmitters and conducting cations across the cell membrane. In the mammalian brain, most of these signals are mediated by ... -
Syncytial nerve net in a ctenophore adds insights on the evolution of nervous systems
(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 ... -
Recombinant Analogs of Sea Anemone Kunitz-Type Peptides Influence P2X7 Receptor Activity in Neuro-2a Cells
(Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2023)Purinergic P2X7 receptors (P2X7) have now been proven to play an important role and represent an important therapeutic target in many pathological conditions including neurodegeneration. Here, we investigated the impact ... -
Muscle cell-type diversification is driven by bHLH transcription factor expansion and extensive effector gene duplications
(Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2023)Animals are typically composed of hundreds of different cell types, yet mechanisms underlying the emergence of new cell types remain unclear. Here we address the origin and diversification of muscle cells in the non-bilaterian, ... -
Neuronal gene expression in two generations of the marine parasitic worm, Cryptocotyle lingua
(Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2023)Trematodes, or flukes, undergo intricate anatomical and behavioral transformations during their life cycle, yet the functional changes in their nervous system remain poorly understood. We investigated the molecular basis ... -
Vikings in the Mediterranean: Proceedings of an international conference co-organized by the Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish Institutes at Athens, Athens, 27-30 November 2019
(Papers and monographs from the Norwegian Institute at Athens;Volume 14, Book, 2023-05-15)This book collects the proceedings of the first-ever academic conference on the Vikings in the Mediterranean, held in Athens on 27-30 November 2019. Beginning with the research history of the Vikings in the Middle Sea, the ...
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