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Nature 455, 1184-1185 (30 October 2008) | doi:10.1038/4551184a; Published online 29 October 2008

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Evolutionary biology: Small regulatory RNAs pitch in

Ulrich Technau1

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How did organismal complexity evolve at a cellular level, and how does a genome encode it? The answer might lie in differences, not in the number of genes an organism has, but rather in the regulation of gene expression.

It is commonly believed that complex organisms arose from simple ones. Yet analyses of genomes and of their transcribed genes in various organisms reveal1, 2 that, as far as protein-coding genes are concerned, the repertoire of a sea anemone — a rather simple, evolutionarily basal animal — is almost as complex as that of a human.

  1. Ulrich Technau is in the Developmental Biology Section, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
    Email: ulrich.technau@univie.ac.at

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