ArticleNature2011
Acoelomorph flatworms are deuterostomes related to Xenoturbella.
Article in Nature, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 184 papers.
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Who cites it
184 citing papers in PubMed, 465 citations in OpenAlex.
- A single-cell transcriptomic atlas reveals the emergence of medusa-specific cell states in the scyphozoan Aurelia coerulea.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- The anti-neural role of BMP signaling is a consequence of its ancestral function in dorsoventral patterning.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Patterns of Conservation and Loss of Hox Genes in Xenacoelomorph Lineage Since Divergence From Last Common Bilaterian Ancestor.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Totipotency and high plasticity in an embryo with an invariant, fate-specifying cleavage program.Current biology : CB · 2026Article
- Article
- Absence of conserved immune signalling pathways and increased pathogen susceptibility associated to photosymbiosis in acoels.BMC biology · 2026Article
- Anterior-posterior patterning in the chaetognath Spadella cephaloptera informs bilaterian nervous system and tail evolution.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Injury-induced Neuregulin-EGFR signaling from muscle mobilizes stem cells for whole-body regeneration in acoels.Developmental biology · 2025Article
- Molecular evidence from xenacoelomorph gonopore formation supports homology with the bilaterian anus.Nature ecology & evolution · 2025Article
- Developmental, regenerative, and behavioral dynamics in acoel reproduction.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Changes of cell-type diversity in the polyp-to-medusa metagenesis of the scyphozoan jellyfishbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- A Phylogenomic Backbone for Acoelomorpha Inferred From Transcriptomic Data.Systematic biology · 2025Article
- Sensory discrimination of chemical and temperature stimuli in the acoel Symsagittifera roscoffensis.PloS one · 2025Article
- Light-modulated neural control of sphincter regulation in the evolution of through-gut.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Acoelomorph flatworm monophyly is a long-branch attraction artefact obscuring a clade of Acoela and Xenoturbellida.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- A taxon-rich and genome-scale phylogeny of Opisthokonta.PLoS biology · 2024Article
- Article
- Ultrastructural analysis and 3D reconstruction of the frontal sensory-glandular complex and its neural projections in the platyhelminth Macrostomum lignano.Cell and tissue research · 2024Article
- A wound-induced differentiation trajectory for neurons.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- The Acoel nervous system: morphology and development.Neural development · 2024Review
124 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 8 institutions in 6 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Xenoturbellida and Acoelomorpha are marine worms with contentious ancestry. Both were originally associated with the flatworms (Platyhelminthes), but molecular data have revised their phylogenetic positions, generally linking Xenoturbellida to the deuterostomes and positioning the Acoelomorpha as the most basally branching bilaterian group(s). Recent phylogenomic data suggested that Xenoturbellida and Acoelomorpha are sister taxa and together constitute an early branch of Bilateria. Here we assemble three independent data sets-mitochondrial genes, a phylogenomic data set of 38,330 amino-acid positions and new microRNA (miRNA) complements-and show that the position of Acoelomorpha is strongly affected by a long-branch attraction (LBA) artefact. When we minimize LBA we find consistent support for a position of both acoelomorphs and Xenoturbella within the deuterostomes. The most likely phylogeny links Xenoturbella and Acoelomorpha in a clade we call Xenacoelomorpha. The Xenacoelomorpha is the sister group of the Ambulacraria (hemichordates and echinoderms). We show that analyses of miRNA complements have been affected by character loss in the acoels and that both groups possess one miRNA and the gene Rsb66 otherwise specific to deuterostomes. In addition, Xenoturbella shares one miRNA with the ambulacrarians, and two with the acoels. This phylogeny makes sense of the shared characteristics of Xenoturbellida and Acoelomorpha, such as ciliary ultrastructure and diffuse nervous system, and implies the loss of various deuterostome characters in the Xenacoelomorpha including coelomic cavities, through gut and gill slits.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.