title: From the American to the European amphioxus: towards experimental Evo-Devo at the origin of chordates.
abstract: Pallid anchovy fillet, friendly filtering, peacefully laying and little lancelet are some of the nicknames and adjectives the cephalochordate amphioxus has received throughout the last two centuries. Traditionally regarded as the living representative of the last ancestor of vertebrates, amphioxus has recently been promoted to the privileged position of being the most ancient chordate. The preliminary analysis of its prototypical genome is nearly completed, and its hidden secrets towards the understanding of the primitive chordate and deuterostome genomes will soon see the light. Amphioxus embryonic development and body plan have remained in evolutionary stasis since the cephalochordate lineage split from the chordate ancestor about 500 million years ago. In contrast, amphioxus research is far from being at a standstill; in Europe, thanks to the international cooperation and the Banyuls Oceanographic Station, amphioxus embryos are obtained on demand during the spawning season. We summarise here our progress towards the dream of the experimental manipulation of the amphioxus embryo, to enter the era of Experimental Evo-Devo.
authors.affiliation: Departament de Genètica, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain. jordigarcia@ub.edu
authors.forename: Jordi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Garcia-Fernàndez
authors.forename: Senda
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jiménez-Delgado
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pascual-Anaya
authors.forename: Ignacio
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Maeso
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Irimia
authors.forename: Carolina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Minguillón
authors.forename: Elia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Benito-Gutiérrez
authors.forename: Josep
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gardenyes
authors.forename: Stéphanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bertrand
authors.forename: Salvatore
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: D'Aniello
mesh_terms: D000569:Americas; D000818:Animals; D019521:Body Patterning / Q000235:genetics; D002816:Chordata, Nonvertebrate / Q000196:embryology* / Q000235:genetics*; D015509:Developmental Biology / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian / Q000166:cytology / Q000196:embryology / Q000378:metabolism; D005060:Europe; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D016678:Genome / Q000235:genetics; D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D008954:Models, Biological; D005810:Multigene Family; D012106:Research / Q000639:trends; D012107:Research Design
chemical_list: D018398:Homeodomain Proteins