Integrating Embryonic Development and Evolutionary History to Characterize Tentacle-Specific Cell Types in a Ctenophore.

ABSTRACT: The origin of novel traits can promote expansion into new niches and drive speciation. Ctenophores (comb jellies) are unified by their possession of a novel cell type: the colloblast, an adhesive cell found only in the tentacles. Although colloblast-laden tentacles are fundamental for prey capture among ctenophores, some species have tentacles lacking colloblasts and others have lost their tentacles completely. We used transcriptomes from 36 ctenophore species to identify gene losses that occurred specifically in lineages lacking colloblasts and tentacles. We cross-referenced these colloblast- and tentacle-specific candidate genes with temporal RNA-Seq during embryogenesis in Mnemiopsis leidyi and found that both sets of candidates are preferentially expressed during tentacle morphogenesis

SUBMITTER: Babonis LS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6278862 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature