Editor's Summary

10 April 2008

Improved relations

The accumulation of molecular data is reshaping our understanding of the evolutionary relationships between the major groups of animals. Early work in the field relied upon data from a small number of genes, but the availability of fully sequenced genomes and expressed sequence tags (ESTs, short sub-sequences obtained from large numbers of complementary DNA clones), means that huge swathes of the animal kingdom can now be subjected to such analysis. A new study describes and discusses almost 40 megabases-worth of ESTs from animals of 21 phyla, including 11 animals for which no genomic or EST data were previously available. The conclusions confirm ideas long established by anatomy, including the monophyletic nature of the molluscs, deriving from a common ancestor despite their remarkable variety. New and interesting evolutionary relationships are also uncovered, including a single origin for spiral cleavage of the early embryo. The cover illustrates animal diversity, including acorn, ribbon, arrow and velvet worms, jellyfish and sea spider.

Letter: Broad phylogenomic sampling improves resolution of the animal tree of life

Casey W. Dunn, Andreas Hejnol, David Q. Matus, Kevin Pang, William E. Browne, Stephen A. Smith, Elaine Seaver, Greg W. Rouse, Matthias Obst, Gregory D. Edgecombe, Martin V. Sørensen, Steven H. D. Haddock, Andreas Schmidt-Rhaesa, Akiko Okusu, Reinhardt Møbjerg Kristensen, Ward C. Wheeler, Mark Q. Martindale & Gonzalo Giribet

doi:10.1038/nature06614

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