Multicellularity appeared early and repeatedly in life's history; its instantiations presumably
required the confluence of environmental, ecological, and genetic factors. Comparisons of …

For over a century, Haeckel's Gastraea theory remained a dominant theory to explain the
origin of multicellular animals. According to this theory, the animal ancestor was a blastula …

SUMMARY microRNAs (miRNAs) are approximately 22‐nucleotide noncoding RNA
regulatory genes that are key players in cellular differentiation and homeostasis. They might …

The evolution of animals (metazoans) from their unicellular ancestors required the
emergence of novel mechanisms for cell adhesion and cell–cell communication. One of the …

We know little about the genomic events that led to the advent of a multicellular grade of
organization in animals, one of the most dramatic transitions in evolution. Metazoan …

Progress in resolving the phylogenetic relationships among animals and the expansion of
molecular developmental studies to a broader variety of organisms has provided important …

Despite long-standing experimental interest in ctenophores due to their unique biology,
ecological influence and evolutionary status, previous work has largely been constrained by …

Although the genetic regulation of cellular differentiation processes is well established,
recent studies have revealed the role of mechanotransduction on a variety of biological …

The fossil record of the earliest animals has been enlivened in recent years by a series of
spectacular discoveries, including embryos, from the Ediacaran to the Cambrian, but many …

Analyses of recently sequenced sponge, cnidarian, placozoan, and choanoflagellate
genomes have revealed that most transcription factor (TF) classes and families expressed …