From the American to the European amphioxus: towards experimental Evo-Devo at the origin of chordates.
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.
Garcia-Fernàndez
Jordi
J
Departament de Genètica, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain. jordigarcia@ub.edu
Jiménez-Delgado
Senda
S
Pascual-Anaya
Juan
J
Maeso
Ignacio
I
Irimia
Manuel
M
Minguillón
Carolina
C
Benito-Gutiérrez
Elia
E
Gardenyes
Josep
J
Bertrand
Stéphanie
S
D'Aniello
Salvatore
S
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
D018398:Homeodomain Proteins