Sponges are important but often-neglected organisms. The absence of classical animal traits (nerves, digestive tract, and muscles) makes sponges challenging for non-specialists to work with and has delayed getting high quality genomic data compared to other invertebrates. Yet analyses of sponge genomes and transcriptomes currently available have radically changed our understanding of animal evolution. Sponges are of prime evolutionary importance as one of the best candidates to form the sister group of all other animals, and genomic data are essential to understand the mechanisms that control animal evolution and diversity. Here we review the most significant outcomes of current genomic and transcriptomic analyses of sponges, and discuss limitations and future directions of sponge transcriptomic and genomic studies.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|---|
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/bies.201700237 | DOI Listing |
PLoS One
January 2025
Department of Psychology, Lyon College, Batesville, Arkansas, United States of America.
There has been an increased interest in standardized approaches to coding facial movement in mammals. Such approaches include Facial Action Coding Systems (FACS), where individuals are trained to identify discrete facial muscle movements that combine to create a facial configuration. Some studies have utilized FACS to analyze facial signaling, recording the quantity of morphologically distinct facial signals a species can generate.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFElife
January 2025
Department of Evolutionary and Environmental Biology and Institute of Evolution, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
Optimal foraging theory posits that foragers adjust their movements based on prey abundance to optimize food intake. While extensively studied in terrestrial and marine environments, aerial foraging has remained relatively unexplored due to technological limitations. This study, uniquely combining BirdScan-MR1 radar and the Advanced Tracking and Localization of Animals in Real-Life Systems biotelemetry system, investigates the foraging dynamics of Little Swifts () in response to insect movements over Israel's Hula Valley.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSyst Parasitol
January 2025
Pacific branch of the Federal State Budget Scientific Institution "Russian Federal Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography", 4 Alley Shevchenko, Vladivostok, Russian Federation, 690091.
Opistholecithum sandugaense n. g. n.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVet Res Commun
January 2025
College of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Tianjin Agricultural University, No.22, Jinjing Road, Xiqing District, Tianjin, 300384, China.
Recent outbreaks of PRRSV in live attenuated vaccine-immunized pig farms in Tianjin, China have raised questions about the etiological characteristics and pathogenicity of the PRRSV variant, which remains unknown. In this study, a multiple lineages recombinant PRRSV strain named TJ-C6, was isolated and identified. Phylogenetic trees and genome homology analyses revealed that TJ-C6 belonged to lineage 1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNaturwissenschaften
January 2025
Institute of Bioengineering and Biosciences, School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.
While most dentate non-mammalian vertebrates possess simple conical teeth, some demonstrate complex tooth shapes. Lake Malawi cichlid fishes are an extreme example of this, exhibiting a myriad of tooth shapes driven by an ecologically derived rapid evolution of closely related but distinct species. Tooth shape in mammals is generally considered to be established by signaling centers called primary and secondary enamel knots, which are not believed to be present in non-mammalian vertebrates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!