ArticleBMC genomics2018
New genomic data and analyses challenge the traditional vision of animal epithelium evolution.
Article in BMC genomics, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 73 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evidence for an early cadherin-catenin interaction network in ctenophores.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- First draft genome assembly of sponge Halisarca dujardinii reveals key components of basement membrane and broad repertoire of aggregation factors.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- β-Catenin localization in the ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi suggests an ancestral role in cell adhesion and nuclear function.Developmental dynamics : an official publication of the American Association of Anatomists · 2025Article
- A transphyletic study of metazoan β-catenin protein complexes.Zoological letters · 2024Article
- The Buds of Oscarella lobularis (Porifera, Homoscleromorpha): A New Convenient Model for Sponge Cell and Evolutionary Developmental Biology.Journal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution · 2024Article
- Origin and development of primary animal epithelia.BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2024Review
- Long-Term Culturing of Placozoans (Trichoplax and Hoilungia).Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2024Article
- The compact genome of the sponge Oopsacas minuta (Hexactinellida) is lacking key metazoan core genes.BMC biology · 2023Article
- Article
- The origin of human epithelial tissue.Histology and histopathology · 2023Review
- Improving Orthologous Signal and Model Fit in Datasets Addressing the Root of the Animal Phylogeny.Molecular biology and evolution · 2023Article
- Super-resolution imaging uncovers the nanoscopic segregation of polarity proteins in epithelia.eLife · 2022Article
- Gene activation of metazoan Fox transcription factors at the onset of metamorphosis in the marine demosponge Amphimedon queenslandica.Development, growth & differentiation · 2022Article
- Cell polarity signalling at the birth of multicellularity: What can we learn from the first animals.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2022Review
- Physical basis for the determination of lumen shape in a simple epithelium.Nature communications · 2021Article
- Evolution of mechanisms controlling epithelial morphogenesis across animals: new insights from dissociation-reaggregation experiments in the sponge Oscarella lobularis.BMC ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- The origin of animals: an ancestral reconstruction of the unicellular-to-multicellular transition.Open biology · 2021Review
- p73 as a Tissue Architect.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2021Review
- Not That Close to Mommy: Horizontal Transmission Seeds the Microbiome Associated with the Marine SpongeMicroorganisms · 2020Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe emergence of epithelia was the foundation of metazoan expansion. Epithelial tissues are a hallmark of metazoans deeply rooted in the evolution of their complex developmental morphogenesis processes. However, studies on the epithelial features of non-bilaterians are still sparse and it remains unclear whether the last common metazoan ancestor possessed a fully functional epithelial toolkit or if it was acquired later during metazoan evolution.
resultsTo investigate the early evolution of animal epithelia, we sequenced the genome and transcriptomes of two new sponge species to characterize epithelial markers such as the E-cadherin complex and the polarity complexes for all classes (Calcarea, Demospongiae, Hexactinellida, Homoscleromorpha) of sponges (phylum Porifera) and compare them with their homologues in Placozoa and in Ctenophora. We found that Placozoa and most sponges possess orthologues of all essential genes encoding proteins characteristic of bilaterian epithelial cells, as well as their conserved interaction domains. In stark contrast, we found that ctenophores lack several major polarity complex components such as the Crumbs complex and Scribble. Furthermore, the E-cadherin ctenophore orthologue exhibits a divergent cytoplasmic domain making it unlikely to interact with its canonical cytoplasmic partners.
conclusionsThese unexpected findings challenge the current evolutionary paradigm on the emergence of epithelia. Altogether, our results raise doubt on the homology of protein complexes and structures involved in cell polarity and adhesive-type junctions between Ctenophora and Bilateria epithelia.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.