Tunicate orthologs in the human genome comprise just 84 genes of the 19,872 protein-
coding genes and 23 of the 16,528 non-coding genes, yet they stand at the base of the …

The phylum to which humans belong, Chordata, takes its name from one of the major shared
derived features of the group, the notochord. All chordates have a notochord, at least during …

Mining newly sequenced genomes of basal metazoan organisms reveals the evolutionary
origin of modern protein families. Specific cell–cell adhesion and intracellular …

Background Development of the vertebrate head depends on the multipotency and
migratory behavior of neural crest derivatives. This cell population is considered a vertebrate …

Our understanding of the origin of animals has been transformed by characterizing their
most closely related, unicellular sisters: the choanoflagellates, filastereans, and …

Cephalochordates, urochordates, and vertebrates evolved from a common ancestor over
520 million years ago. To improve our understanding of chordate evolution and the origin of …

To identify a novel type II classical cadherin, we searched the genome database and found
rat cadherin19 (cad19) with high similarity to human cadherin19. We also found nucleotide …

The ectodermal neural cortex (ENC) gene family, whose members are implicated in
neurogenesis, is part of the kelch repeat superfamily. To date, ENC genes have been …

The evolution of vertebrates has included a number of important events: the development of
cartilage, the immune system, and complicated craniofacial structures. Here, we examine …

The synaptic cell adhesion molecules encoded by the protocadherin gene cluster are
hypothesized to provide a molecular code involved in the generation of synaptic complexity …