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Single cell atlas of Xenoturbella bocki highlights the limited cell-type complexity of a non-vertebrate deuterostome lineage

Robertson, H.; Sebe-Pedros, A.; Saudemont, B.; Loe Mie, Y.; Zakrzewski, A.; Grau-Bove, X.; Mailhe, M.-P.; Schiffer, P.; Telford, M. J.; Marlow, H.

2022-08-18 evolutionary biology
10.1101/2022.08.18.504214 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Evidence for a sister relationship between Xenacoelomorpha and Ambulacraria (Xenambulacraria) has revived the longstanding debate surrounding the complexity of the Urdeuterostomian and Urbilaterian ancestors and has led to a reassessment of early bilaterian features. Employing whole organism single-cell RNA-seq in the marine xenacoelomorph worm Xenoturbella bocki, we show that Xenambulacrarian nerve nets share regulatory features and a peptidergic identity with those found in cnidarians and protostomes. We also suggest that Xenacoelomorpha muscles are likely to have evolved their "smooth" phenotype convergently. Furthermore, we identify pigmented cells as a potential synapomorphy of the Xenambulacraria. Taken together, these data are consistent with a simplification from an ancestral urbilaterian/urdeuterostomian body plan and a non-centralized nerve net, minimally differentiated contractile cells and evidence of deuterostome cell-type synapomorphies.

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