Lim homeobox genes in the Ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi: the evolution of neural cell type specification.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Nervous systems are thought to be important to the evolutionary success and diversification of metazoans, yet little is known about the origin of simple nervous systems at the base of the animal tree. Recent data suggest that ctenophores, a group of macroscopic pelagic marine invertebrates, are the most ancient group of animals that possess a definitive nervous system consisting of a distributed nerve net and an apical statocyst. This study reports on details of the evolution of the neural cell type specifying transcription factor family of LIM homeobox containing genes (Lhx), which have highly conserved functions in neural specification in bilaterian animals.

Results

Using next generation sequencing, the first draft of the genome of the ctenophore Mnemiopsis leid

SUBMITTER: Simmons DK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3283466 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature