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A deep dive into the development of sea squirts

An analysis of gene expression in sea-squirt embryos at different stages of development deepens our understanding of how the body plans of vertebrates might have evolved from those of less complex animals.
  1. Noriyuki Satoh

    1. Noriyuki Satoh is in the Marine Genomics Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Onna, Okinawa 904-0495, Japan.

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Sea squirts such as Ciona intestinalis are the closest living invertebrate relatives of vertebrates. Their tadpole-like larvae feature some of the same organs and tissues as those found in developing vertebrates. Writing in Nature, Cao et al.1 use gene-expression data to examine the embryonic development of C. intestinalis larvae and to compare its development with that of other chordate animals, including vertebrates and cephalochordates, to reveal fresh insights into the evolution of vertebrates.

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Nature 571, 333-334 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01967-0

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