The Deuterostome Context of Chordate Origins

Overview

Journal Nature

Specialty Science

Date 2015 Apr 24

PMID 25903627

Citations 52

Authors

Christopher J Lowe

D Nathaniel Clarke

Daniel M Medeiros

Daniel S Rokhsar

John Gerhart

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Our understanding of vertebrate origins is powerfully informed by comparative morphology, embryology and genomics of chordates, hemichordates and echinoderms, which together make up the deuterostome clade. Striking body-plan differences among these phyla have historically hindered the identification of ancestral morphological features, but recent progress in molecular genetics and embryology has revealed deep similarities in body-axis formation and organization across deuterostomes, at stages before morphological differences develop. These developmental genetic features, along with robust support of pharyngeal gill slits as a shared deuterostome character, provide the foundation for the emergence of chordates.

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