title: Forward genetics for back-in-time questions.
abstract: A genetic screen has revealed one of the molecules that allow choanoflagellates, the closest unicellular relative of animals, to form colonies, which could help researchers to answer questions about the earliest days of animal evolution.
authors.affiliation: Alex de Mendoza is in the Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Barcelona, Spain; Departament de Genètica, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain alex.demendoza@ibe.upf-csic.es.
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: de Mendoza
authors.affiliation: Iñaki Ruiz Trillo is in the Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Barcelona, Spain; Departament de Genètica, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain inaki.ruiz@ibe.upf-csic.es.
authors.forename: Iñaki
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ruiz-Trillo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D056897:Choanoflagellata / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development; D005823:Genetics; D037181:Lectins, C-Type / Q000378:metabolism; D008018:Life Cycle Stages; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D037181:Lectins, C-Type
keywords: C-type lectin-like; Salpingoeca rosetta; choanoflagellate; developmental biology; evolutionary biology; genomics; multicellularity; rosetteless; stem cells