<i>Cladocroce caelum</i> (Porifera) has a specialized growth region and a transcriptional regionalization across its body axis.

ABSTRACT: Sponges (Porifera) are traditionally considered to lack defined body axes and regional specialization. Understanding whether sponges exhibit preferential growth regions and axial patterning is essential for elucidating the evolution of metazoan body plans. Here, we compared two body regions of the repent morph of Cladocroce caelum (Demospongiae): the proximal region, containing fully developed aquiferous system modules, and the distal region, hypothesized as the primary growth region. Our findings show that specimens predominantly grow from the distal region, where archaeocytes constitute the main cell type (mean 65.3%), whereas the proximal region features aquiferous system modules primarily composed of choanocytes (47%). To further explore molecular differences, we assembled a

SUBMITTER: Cajado B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12742393 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature