title: The Trichoplax genome and the nature of placozoans.
abstract: As arguably the simplest free-living animals, placozoans may represent a primitive metazoan form, yet their biology is poorly understood. Here we report the sequencing and analysis of the approximately 98 million base pair nuclear genome of the placozoan Trichoplax adhaerens. Whole-genome phylogenetic analysis suggests that placozoans belong to a 'eumetazoan' clade that includes cnidarians and bilaterians, with sponges as the earliest diverging animals. The compact genome shows conserved gene content, gene structure and synteny in relation to the human and other complex eumetazoan genomes. Despite the apparent cellular and organismal simplicity of Trichoplax, its genome encodes a rich array of transcription factor and signalling pathway genes that are typically associated with diverse cell types and developmental processes in eumetazoans, motivating further searches for cryptic cellular complexity and/or as yet unobserved life history stages.
authors: Center for Integrative Genomics and Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA. msrivast@berkeley.edu
authors: Mansi
authors: M
authors: Srivastava
authors: Emina
authors: E
authors: Begovic
authors: Jarrod
authors: J
authors: Chapman
authors: Nicholas H
authors: NH
authors: Putnam
authors: Uffe
authors: U
authors: Hellsten
authors: Takeshi
authors: T
authors: Kawashima
authors: Alan
authors: A
authors: Kuo
authors: Therese
authors: T
authors: Mitros
authors: Asaf
authors: A
authors: Salamov
authors: Meredith L
authors: ML
authors: Carpenter
authors: Ana Y
authors: AY
authors: Signorovitch
authors: Maria A
authors: MA
authors: Moreno
authors: Kai
authors: K
authors: Kamm
authors: Jane
authors: J
authors: Grimwood
authors: Jeremy
authors: J
authors: Schmutz
authors: Harris
authors: H
authors: Shapiro
authors: Igor V
authors: IV
authors: Grigoriev
authors: Leo W
authors: LW
authors: Buss
authors: Bernd
authors: B
authors: Schierwater
authors: Stephen L
authors: SL
authors: Dellaporta
authors: Daniel S
authors: DS
authors: Rokhsar
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D005109:Extracellular Matrix / Q000235:genetics; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D016678:Genome / Q000235:genetics*; D005854:Germ Cells; D006801:Humans; D007448:Invertebrates / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D012098:Reproduction / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012723:Sex; D015398:Signal Transduction; D026801:Synteny; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D014157:Transcription Factors