ArticleNature2012
Independent evolution of striated muscles in cnidarians and bilaterians.
Article in Nature, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 123 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
123 citing papers in PubMed, 247 citations in OpenAlex.
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- A single-cell transcriptomic atlas reveals the emergence of medusa-specific cell states in the scyphozoan Aurelia coerulea.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- A chromosome-level genome assembly for the colonial marine hydrozoanbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Decoding cnidarian cell type gene regulation.Nature ecology & evolution · 2026Article
- Parvin is essential for indirect flight muscle (IFM) performance and Zasp52 localisation to the Z-disc in Drosophila melanogaster.Cell and tissue research · 2025Article
- Review
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- The Ancestor and Evolution of the Giant Muscle Protein Connectin/Titin.Journal of molecular evolution · 2025Article
- Normal locomotion in zebrafish lacking the sodium channel NaV1.4 suggests that the need for muscle action potentials is not universal.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- Changes of cell-type diversity in the polyp-to-medusa metagenesis of the scyphozoan jellyfishbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
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- The varied functions of the giant muscle scaffold protein obscurin.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2025Review
- Editorial: Model organisms in embryonic development.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2025Article
- Article
- Musculature of an Early Cambrian cycloneuralian animal.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Muscle cell-type diversification is driven by bHLH transcription factor expansion and extensive effector gene duplications.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Insights and perspectives on the enigmatic alary muscles of arthropods.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2023Review
- Evolution and developmental functions of the dystrophin-associated protein complex: beyond the idea of a muscle-specific cell adhesion complex.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2023Review
- Evolution of the cardiac dyad.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Review
63 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 7 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Striated muscles are present in bilaterian animals (for example, vertebrates, insects and annelids) and some non-bilaterian eumetazoans (that is, cnidarians and ctenophores). The considerable ultrastructural similarity of striated muscles between these animal groups is thought to reflect a common evolutionary origin. Here we show that a muscle protein core set, including a type II myosin heavy chain (MyHC) motor protein characteristic of striated muscles in vertebrates, was already present in unicellular organisms before the origin of multicellular animals. Furthermore, 'striated muscle' and 'non-muscle' myhc orthologues are expressed differentially in two sponges, compatible with a functional diversification before the origin of true muscles and the subsequent use of striated muscle MyHC in fast-contracting smooth and striated muscle. Cnidarians and ctenophores possess striated muscle myhc orthologues but lack crucial components of bilaterian striated muscles, such as genes that code for titin and the troponin complex, suggesting the convergent evolution of striated muscles. Consistently, jellyfish orthologues of a shared set of bilaterian Z-disc proteins are not associated with striated muscles, but are instead expressed elsewhere or ubiquitously. The independent evolution of eumetazoan striated muscles through the addition of new proteins to a pre-existing, ancestral contractile apparatus may serve as a model for the evolution of complex animal cell types.
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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.