• Active mode of excretion across digestive tissues predates the origin of excretory organs 

      Andrikou, Carmen; Thiel, Daniel; Ruiz-Santiesteban, Juan A.; Hejnol, Andreas (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2019)
      Most bilaterian animals excrete toxic metabolites through specialized organs, such as nephridia and kidneys, which share morphological and functional correspondences. In contrast, excretion in non-nephrozoans is largely ...
    • AJAM-A–tetraspanin–αvβ5 integrin complex regulates contact inhibition of locomotion 

      Kummer, Daniel; Steinbacher, Tim; Thölmann, Sonja; Schwietzer, Mariel Flavia; Hartmann, Christian; Horenkamp, Simone; Demuth, Sabrina; Peddibhotla, Swetha S.D.; Brinkmann, Frauke; Kemper, Björn; Schnekenburger, Jürgen; Brandt, Matthias; Betz, Timo; Liashkovich, Ivan; Kouzel, Ivan; Shahin, Victor; Corvaia, Nathalie; Rottner, Klemens; Tarbashevich, Katsiaryna; Raz, Erez; Greune, Lilo; Alexander Schmidt, Schmidt; Gerke, Volker; Ebnet, Klaus (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2022)
      Contact inhibition of locomotion (CIL) is a process that regulates cell motility upon collision with other cells. Improper regulation of CIL has been implicated in cancer cell dissemination. Here, we identify the cell ...
    • An ancient FMRFamide-related peptide-receptor pair induces defense behavior in a brachiopod larva 

      Thiel, Daniel; Bauknecht, Philipp; Jékely, Gáspár; Hejnol, Andreas (Journal article, 2017)
      Animals show different behaviors that can consist of various spatially or temporally separated sub-reactions. Even less complex organisms, like ciliated larvae that display important behaviors (e.g. metamorphosis, defense, ...
    • Ancora: a web resource for exploring highly conserved noncoding elements and their association with developmental regulatory genes 

      Engström, Pär G.; Fredman, David; Lenhard, Boris (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2008-02-12)
      Metazoan genomes contain arrays of highly conserved noncoding elements (HCNEs) that span developmental regulatory genes and define regulatory domains. We describe Ancora http:// ancora.genereg.net, a web resource that ...
    • The architecture of cell differentiation in choanoflagellates and sponge choanocytes 

      Laundon, Davis; Larson, Ben T; McDonald, Kent; King, Nicole; Burkhardt, Pawel (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2019-04-12)
      Although collar cells are conserved across animals and their closest relatives, the choanoflagellates, little is known about their ancestry, their subcellular architecture, or how they differentiate. The choanoflagellate ...
    • Assembly and positioning of actomyosin rings by contractility and planar cell polarity 

      Sehring, Ivonne Margarete; Recho, Pierre; Denker, Elsa; Kourakis, Matthew; Mathiesen, Birthe Thuesen; Hannezo, Edouard; Dong, Bo; Jiang, Di (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2015-10-21)
      The actomyosin cytoskeleton is a primary force-generating mechanism in morphogenesis, thus a robust spatial control of cytoskeletal positioning is essential. In this report, we demonstrate that actomyosin contractility and ...
    • Automated behavioural analysis reveals the basic behavioural repertoire of the urochordate Ciona intestinalis 

      Rudolf, Jerneja; Dondorp, Daniel; Canon, Louise; Tieo, Sonia; Chatzigeorgiou, Marios (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2019-02-20)
      Quantitative analysis of animal behaviour in model organisms is becoming an increasingly essential approach for tackling the great challenge of understanding how activity in the brain gives rise to behaviour. Here we used ...
    • The Birth and Death of Toxins with Distinct Functions: A Case Study in the Sea Anemone Nematostella 

      Sachkova, Maria; Singer, Shir A; Macrander, Jason; Reitzel, Adam M.; Peigneur, Steve; Tytgat, Jan; Moran, Yehu (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2019-05-27)
      The cnidarian Nematostella vectensis has become an established lab model, providing unique opportunities for venom evolution research. The Nematostella venom system is multimodal: involving both nematocytes and ectodermal ...
    • Calcareous sponge genomes reveal complex evolution of α-carbonic anhydrases and two key biomineralization enzymes 

      Voigt, Oliver; Adamski, Marcin; Sluzek, Kasia; Adamska, Maja (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2014-11-25)
      Background: Calcium carbonate biominerals form often complex and beautiful skeletal elements, including coral exoskeletons and mollusc shells. Although the ability to generate these carbonate structures was apparently ...
    • A cellular and molecular analysis of SoxB-driven neurogenesis in a cnidarian 

      Chrysostomou, Eleni; Flici, Hakima; Gornik, Sebastian G.; Salinas-Saavedra, Miguel; Gahan, James Michael; McMahon, Emma T.; Thompson, Kerry; Hanley, Shirley; Kilcoyne, Michelle; Schnitzler, Christine E.; Gonzalez, Paul; Baxevanis, Andreas D.; Frank, Uri (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2022)
      Neurogenesis is the generation of neurons from stem cells, a process that is regulated by SoxB transcription factors (TFs) in many animals. Although the roles of these TFs are well understood in bilaterians, how their ...
    • The cellular and molecular mechanisms of the notochord tubulogenesis in the marine invertebrate Ciona intestinalis 

      Deng, Wei (Doctoral thesis, 2013-01-18)
      The biological tube is the fundamental structural design of most internal organs and body systems. Tubulogenesis involves a series of coordinated cellular processes, failure of any of which can cause severe dysfunctions ...
    • Characterization of Schistosoma mansoni Glutamate-Gated Chloride Channels 

      Lynagh, Timothy (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2020)
      Electrophysiology is the standard method for characterizing ion channel function. Two-electrode voltage clamp is a robust and relatively simple version which can be applied to the characterization of glutamate-gated chloride ...
    • Choanoflagellates and the ancestry of neurosecretory vesicles 

      Göhde, Ronja Alica Angelika; Naumann, Benjamin; Laundon, Davis; Imig, Cordelia; McDonald, Kent; Cooper, Benjamin H.; Varoqueaux, Frédérique; Fasshauer, Dirk; Burkhardt, Pawel (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2021)
      Neurosecretory vesicles are highly specialized trafficking organelles that store neurotransmitters that are released at presynaptic nerve endings and are, therefore, important for animal cell–cell signalling. Despite ...
    • Chromatin jets define the properties of cohesin-driven in vivo loop extrusion 

      Guo, Ya; Al-Jibury, Ediem; Garcia-Millan, Rosalba; Ntagiantas, Konstantinos; King, James W.D.; Nash, Alex J.; Galjart, Niels; Lenhard, Boris; Rueckert, Daniel; Fisher, Amanda G.; Pruessner, Gunnar; Merkenschlager, Matthias (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2022)
      Complex genomes show intricate organization in three-dimensional (3D) nuclear space. Current models posit that cohesin extrudes loops to form self-interacting domains delimited by the DNA binding protein CTCF. Here, we ...
    • Ciliary photoreceptors in the cerebral eyes of a protostome larva 

      Passamaneck, Yale J.; Furchheim, Nina; Hejnol, Andreas; Martindale, Mark Q.; Lüter, Carsten (Peer reviewed; Journal article, 2011-03-01)
      Background: Eyes in bilaterian metazoans have been described as being composed of either ciliary or rhabdomeric photoreceptors. Phylogenetic distribution, as well as distinct morphologies and characteristic deployment of ...
    • Ciona spp. and ascidians as bioindicator organisms for evaluating effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals: A discussion paper 

      Beyer, Jonny; Song, You; Lillicrap, Adam David; Rodríguez-Satizábal, Simón; Chatzigeorgiou, Marios (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2023)
      In context of testing, screening and monitoring of endocrine-disrupting (ED) type of environmental pollutants, tunicates could possibly represent a particularly interesting group of bioindicator organisms. These primitive ...
    • cis–regulation and mis–regulation – Insights into genomic regulatory mechanisms underlying the control of fgf8a in zebrafish Danio rerio 

      Komisarczuk, Anna Zofia (Doctoral thesis, 2008-06-19)
      Fibroblast growth factor 8 (Fgf8) is a potent vertebrate morphogen that plays decisive roles in multiple developmental processes, such as cellular proliferation, survival, differentiation, growth and migration. Fgf8 ...
    • Cleavage modification did not alter blastomere fates during bryozoan evolution 

      Vellutini, Bruno Cossermelli; Martin Duran, Jose Maria; Hejnol, Andreas (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2017-04-28)
      Background: Stereotypic cleavage patterns play a crucial role in cell fate determination by precisely positioning early embryonic blastomeres. Although misplaced cell divisions can alter blastomere fates and cause embryonic ...
    • CNEr: A toolkit for exploring extreme noncoding conservation 

      Tan, Ge; Polychronopoulos, Dimitris; Lenhard, Boris (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2019-08-26)
      Conserved Noncoding Elements (CNEs) are elements exhibiting extreme noncoding conservation in Metazoan genomes. They cluster around developmental genes and act as long-range enhancers, yet nothing that we know about their ...
    • Cnidofest 2022: hot topics in cnidarian research 

      Gahan, James Michael; Cartwright, Paulyn; Nicotra, Matthew L.; Schnitzler, Christine E.; Steinmetz, Patrick; Juliano, Celina E. (Journal article; Peer reviewed, 2023-08-24)
      The second annual Cnidarian Model Systems Meeting, aka “Cnidofest”, took place in Davis, California from 7 to 10th of September, 2022. The meeting brought together scientists using cnidarians to study molecular and cellular ...