Connexins evolved after early chordates lost innexin diversity [PDF]
eLife, 2022 Gap junction channels are formed by two unrelated protein families. Non-chordates use the primordial innexins, while chordates use connexins that superseded the gap junction function of innexins.
Georg Welzel, Stefan Schuster
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An Updated Staging System for Cephalochordate Development: One Table Suits Them All [PDF]
Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, 2021 Chordates are divided into three subphyla: Vertebrata, Tunicata, and Cephalochordata. Phylogenetically, the Cephalochordata, more commonly known as lancelets or amphioxus, constitute the sister group of Vertebrata and Tunicata.
João E. Carvalho +7 more
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Amphioxus as a model to study the evolution of development in chordates [PDF]
eLife, 2023 Cephalochordates and tunicates represent the only two groups of invertebrate chordates, and extant cephalochordates – commonly known as amphioxus or lancelets – are considered the best proxy for the chordate ancestor, from which they split around 520 ...
Salvatore D'Aniello +2 more
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Vision and retina evolution: How to develop a retina [PDF]
IBRO Neuroscience Reports, 2022 Early in vertebrate evolution, a single homeobox (Hox) cluster in basal chordates was quadrupled to generate the Hox gene clusters present in extant vertebrates.
Bernd Fritzsch, Paul R. Martin
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Gene networks and the evolution of olfactory organs, eyes, hair cells and motoneurons: a view encompassing lancelets, tunicates and vertebrates [PDF]
Frontiers in Cell and Developmental BiologyKey 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.
Bernd Fritzsch +2 more
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Molecular taxonomy confirms that the northeastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea harbor a single lancelet, Branchiostoma lanceolatum (Pallas, 1774) (Cephalochordata: Leptocardii: Branchiostomatidae). [PDF]
PLoS ONE, 2021 Branchiostomatidae (lancelets or amphioxus) comprises about 30 species, several of which are well-established models in evolutionary development. Our zoological and ecological knowledge of the family is nonetheless limited.
Filomena Caccavale +3 more
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Serial blockface SEM suggests that stem cells may participate in adult notochord growth in an invertebrate chordate, the Bahamas lancelet [PDF]
EvoDevo, 2020 Background The cellular basis of adult growth in cephalochordates (lancelets or amphioxus) has received little attention. Lancelets and their constituent organs grow slowly but continuously during adult life.
Nicholas D. Holland +1 more
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Apaf-1 is an evolutionarily conserved DNA sensor that switches the cell fate between apoptosis and inflammation [PDF]
Cell DiscoveryApoptotic protease activating factor 1 (Apaf-1) was traditionally defined as a scaffold protein in mammalian cells for assembling a caspase activation platform known as the ‘apoptosome’ after its binding to cytochrome c.
Jie Ruan +12 more
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Immunity: defense against infections essential for all living organisms [PDF]
Frontiers in ImmunologyAll organisms need protection against infection. Bacteria are often primarily seen as infectious agents, but they also need protection against bacterial viruses, so-called bacteriophages. To this end, bacteria have developed very complex defense systems,
Srinivas Akula +3 more
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Lots of Lancelets or Not? Diversity of Cephalochordates in the Tropical Eastern Pacific
DiversityAs close relatives of the vertebrates, cephalochordates have been the focus of significant evo–devo and genomic research; however, their biodiversity and systematics remain poorly known.
Maycol Ezequiel Madrid Concepcion +5 more
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