title: Buddenbrockia is a cnidarian worm.
abstract: A major evolutionary divide occurs in the animal kingdom between the so-called radially symmetric animals, which includes the cnidarians, and the bilaterally symmetric animals, which includes all worm phyla. Buddenbrockia plumatellae is an active, muscular, parasitic worm that belongs to the phylum Myxozoa, a group of morphologically simplified microscopic endoparasites that has proved difficult to place phylogenetically. Phylogenetic analyses of multiple protein-coding genes demonstrate that Buddenbrockia is a cnidarian. This active muscular worm increases the known diversity in cnidarian body plans and demonstrates that a muscular, wormlike form can evolve in the absence of overt bilateral symmetry.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Jiménez-Guri
authors.forename: Hervé
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Philippe
authors.forename: Beth
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Okamura
authors.forename: Peter W H
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Holland
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003063:Cnidaria / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000235:genetics; D005796:Genes; D005801:Genes, Homeobox; D008124:Locomotion; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009132:Muscles / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011506:Proteins / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D011506:Proteins