A phylogenomic investigation into the origin of Metazoa

@article{citeulike:2230351, abstract = {The evolution of multicellular animals (Metazoa) from their unicellular ancestors was a key transition that was accompanied by the emergence and diversification of gene families associated with multicellularity. To clarify the timing and order of specific events in this transition, we conducted expressed sequence tag (EST) surveys on four putative protistan relatives of Metazoa including the choanoflagellate Monosiga ovata, the ichthyosporeans Sphaeroforma arctica and Amoebidium parasiticum and the amoeba Capsaspora owczarzaki, and two members of Amoebozoa, Acanthamoeba castellanii and Mastigamoeba balamuthi. We find that homologs of genes involved in metazoan multicellularity exist in several of these unicellular organisms, including one encoding a membrane-associated guanylate kinase (MAGI) in Capsaspora. In Metazoa, MAGI regulates tight junctions involved in cell-cell communication. By phylogenomic analyses of genes encoded in nuclear and mitochondrial genomes we show that the choanoflagellates are the closest relatives of the Metazoa, followed by the Capsaspora and Icthyosporea lineages, although the branching order between the latter two groups remains unclear. Understanding the function of metazoan-specific' proteins we have identified in these protists will clarify the evolutionary steps that led to the emergence of the Metazoa. 10.1093/molbev/msn006}, author = {Ruiz-Trillo, Inaki and Roger, Andrew J. and Burger, Gertraud and Gray, Michael W. and Lang, Franz B. }, citeulike-article-id = {2230351}, doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msn006}, journal = {Mol Biol Evol}, keywords = {acoelomorpha, animal-evolution}, month = {January}, pages = {msn006+}, posted-at = {2008-04-19 22:18:39}, priority = {0}, title = {A phylogenomic investigation into the origin of Metazoa}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msn006}, year = {2008} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:2230351 L3 - citeulike-article-id:2230351 N2 - The evolution of multicellular animals (Metazoa) from their unicellular ancestors was a key transition that was accompanied by the emergence and diversification of gene families associated with multicellularity. To clarify the timing and order of specific events in this transition, we conducted expressed sequence tag (EST) surveys on four putative protistan relatives of Metazoa including the choanoflagellate Monosiga ovata, the ichthyosporeans Sphaeroforma arctica and Amoebidium parasiticum and the amoeba Capsaspora owczarzaki, and two members of Amoebozoa, Acanthamoeba castellanii and Mastigamoeba balamuthi. We find that homologs of genes involved in metazoan multicellularity exist in several of these unicellular organisms, including one encoding a membrane-associated guanylate kinase (MAGI) in Capsaspora. In Metazoa, MAGI regulates tight junctions involved in cell-cell communication. By phylogenomic analyses of genes encoded in nuclear and mitochondrial genomes we show that the choanoflagellates are the closest relatives of the Metazoa, followed by the Capsaspora and Icthyosporea lineages, although the branching order between the latter two groups remains unclear. Understanding the function of metazoan-specific' proteins we have identified in these protists will clarify the evolutionary steps that led to the emergence of the Metazoa. 10.1093/molbev/msn006 JF - Mol Biol Evol TI - A phylogenomic investigation into the origin of Metazoa SP - msn006 KW - acoelomorpha KW - animal-evolution AU - Ruiz-Trillo, Inaki AU - Roger, Andrew AU - Burger, Gertraud AU - Gray, Michael AU - Lang, Franz PY - 2008/01/09/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msn006 ER -