Comparative genomics to unravel the metazoan “genetic starter kit”.
Our goal is to elucidate the evolutionary history of genes that are key for animal development and multicellularity. To this aim, we are part of the UNICORN (UNICellular Opisthokonts Research iNitiative) initiative: an international and multi-taxon genome project recently funded by NHGRI (National Institute for Human Genome Research), which aims to gain insights into how multicellularity first evolved in both animals and fungi. UNICORN, through the Broad Institute, will obtain the genome sequence from several of the most closest relatives of both multicellular animals and fungi, including both Capsaspora owczarzaki and Sphaeroforma arctica (see Multicellularity Project at Broad). This work has already shown that Capsaspora expresses several genes that are required to metazoan development, such as protein tyrosine kinases, integrins and several transcription factors (i.e, T-box genes).
Current collaborators:
Carsten Russ, The Broad Institute, USA.
Nicole King, UC Berkeley, USA.
Andrew J. Roger, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada.
Franz Lang, Université de Montreal, Canada.
Stuart Donachie, University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA.
Recent publications:
Arnau Sebé-Pedrós, Alex de Mendoza, B. Franz Lang, Bernie M. Degnan & Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo (2011).
Unexpected repertoire of metazoan transcription factors in the unicellular holozoan Capsaspora owczarzaki.
Molecular Biology and Evolution 28(3):1241-54.
Arnau Sebé-Pedrós, Andrew J. Roger, Franz B. Lang, Nicole King & Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo (2010)
Ancient origin of integrin-mediated adhesion and signaling machinery.
Proceedings National Academic of Sciences USA 107(22): 10142-7.
Alex de Mendoza, Hiroshi Suga & Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo (2010).
Evolution of the MAGUK protein gene family in premetazoan lineages.
BMC Evolutionary Biology 10(1): 93.
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