ArticlePLoS biology2019
Active mode of excretion across digestive tissues predates the origin of excretory organs.
Article in PLoS biology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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18 citing papers in PubMed, 36 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Acoelomorph flatworm monophyly is a long-branch attraction artefact obscuring a clade of Acoela and Xenoturbellida.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Tissue specificity follows gene duplication.Nature ecology & evolution · 2024Article
- Single cell atlas of Xenoturbella bocki highlights limited cell-type complexity.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Loss of activation by GABA in vertebrate delta ionotropic glutamate receptors.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- The V-type ATPase enhances photosynthesis in marine phytoplankton and further links phagocytosis to symbiogenesis.Current biology : CB · 2023Article
- Peripheral and central employment of acid-sensing ion channels during early bilaterian evolution.eLife · 2023Article
- The draft genome of the microscopicFrontiers in genetics · 2023Article
- Acoel Single-Cell Transcriptomics: Cell Type Analysis of a Deep Branching Bilaterian.Molecular biology and evolution · 2021Article
- Nephrocytes are part of the spectrum of filtration epithelial diversity.Cell and tissue research · 2020Article
- Article
- Multiple paedomorphic lineages of soft-substrate burrowing invertebrates: parallels in the origin of Xenocratena and Xenoturbella.PloS one · 2020Article
- Active mode of excretion across digestive tissues predates the origin of excretory organs.PLoS biology · 2019Article
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4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Most bilaterian animals excrete toxic metabolites through specialized organs, such as nephridia and kidneys, which share morphological and functional correspondences. In contrast, excretion in non-nephrozoans is largely unknown, and therefore the reconstruction of ancestral excretory mechanisms is problematic. Here, we investigated the excretory mode of members of the Xenacoelomorpha, the sister group to Nephrozoa, and Cnidaria, the sister group to Bilateria. By combining gene expression, inhibitor experiments, and exposure to varying environmental ammonia conditions, we show that both Xenacoelomorpha and Cnidaria are able to excrete across digestive-associated tissues. However, although the cnidarian Nematostella vectensis seems to use diffusion as its main excretory mode, the two xenacoelomorphs use both active transport and diffusion mechanisms. Based on these results, we propose that digestive-associated tissues functioned as excretory sites before the evolution of specialized organs in nephrozoans. We conclude that the emergence of a compact, multiple-layered bilaterian body plan necessitated the evolution of active transport mechanisms, which were later recruited into the specialized excretory organs.
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