Search results for "Ecdysozoa"
showing 4 items of 14 documents
Six3 demarcates the anterior-most developing brain region in bilaterian animals
2010
Abstract Background The heads of annelids (earthworms, polychaetes, and others) and arthropods (insects, myriapods, spiders, and others) and the arthropod-related onychophorans (velvet worms) show similar brain architecture and for this reason have long been considered homologous. However, this view is challenged by the 'new phylogeny' placing arthropods and annelids into distinct superphyla, Ecdysozoa and Lophotrochozoa, together with many other phyla lacking elaborate heads or brains. To compare the organisation of annelid and arthropod heads and brains at the molecular level, we investigated head regionalisation genes in various groups. Regionalisation genes subdivide developing animals …
Platyzoan paraphyly based on phylogenomic data supports a noncoelomate ancestry of spiralia.
2014
Based on molecular data three major clades have been recognized within Bilateria: Deuterostomia, Ecdysozoa, and Spiralia. Within Spiralia, small-sized and simply organized animals such as flatworms, gastrotrichs, and gnathostomulids have recently been grouped together as Platyzoa. However, the representation of putative platyzoans was low in the respective molecular phylogenetic studies, in terms of both, taxon number and sequence data. Furthermore, increased substitution rates in platyzoan taxa raised the possibility that monophyletic Platyzoa represents an artifact due to long-branch attraction. In order to overcome such problems, we employed a phylogenomic approach, thereby substantially…
Assessing the root of bilaterian animals with scalable phylogenomic methods.
2009
A clear picture of animal relationships is a prerequisite to understand how the morphological and ecological diversity of animals evolved over time. Among others, the placement of the acoelomorph flatworms, Acoela and Nemertodermatida, has fundamental implications for the origin and evolution of various animal organ systems. Their position, however, has been inconsistent in phylogenetic studies using one or several genes. Furthermore, Acoela has been among the least stable taxa in recent animal phylogenomic analyses, which simultaneously examine many genes from many species, while Nemertodermatida has not been sampled in any phylogenomic study. New sequence data are presented here from org…
The comparison of beta-thymosin homologues among metazoa supports an arthropod-nematode clade.
2000
The definition of an Ecdysozoa clade among the protostomians, including all phyla with a regularly molted alpha-chitin-rich cuticle, has been one of the most provocative hypotheses to arise from recent investigations on animal phylogeny. Here we present evidence in favor of an arthropod-nematode clade, from the comparison of beta-thymosin homologues among the Metazoa. Arthropods and nematodes share the absence of the highly conserved beta-thymosin form found in all other documented bilaterian phyla as well as sponges, and the possession of a very unusual, internally triplicated homologue of the beta-thymosin protein, unknown in other phyla. We argue that such discrete molecular character is…