The Most Primitive Metazoan Animals, the Placozoans, Show High Sensitivity to Increasing Ocean Temperatures and Acidities

Overview

Journal Ecol Evol

Date 2017 Feb 8

PMID 28168026

Citations 5

Authors

Dasa Schleicherova

Katharina Dulias

Hans-Jurgen Osigus

Omid Paknia

Heike Hadrys

Bernd Schierwater

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO) leads to rising temperatures and acidification in the oceans, which directly or indirectly affects all marine organisms, from bacteria to animals. We here ask whether the simplest-and possibly also the oldest-metazoan animals, the placozoans, are particularly sensitive to ocean warming and acidification. Placozoans are found in all warm and temperate oceans and are soft-bodied, microscopic invertebrates lacking any calcified structures, organs, or symmetry. We here show that placozoans respond highly sensitive to temperature and acidity stress. The data reveal differential responses in different placozoan lineages and encourage efforts to develop placozoans as a potential biomarker system.

Citing Articles

Long-term dynamics of placozoan culture: emerging models for population and space biology.

Romanova D, Povernov A, Nikitin M, Borman S, Frank Y, Moroz L Front Cell Dev Biol. 2025; 12():1514553.

PMID: 39845085 PMC: 11751234. DOI: 10.3389/fcell.2024.1514553.

Long-Term Culturing of Placozoans (Trichoplax and Hoilungia).

Romanova D, Varoqueaux F, Eitel M, Yoshida M, Nikitin M, Moroz L Methods Mol Biol. 2024; 2757:509-529.

PMID: 38668981 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-3642-8_21.

Beauty in the beast - Placozoan biodiversity explored through molluscan predator genomics.

Eitel M, Osigus H, Brenzinger B, Worheide G Ecol Evol. 2024; 14(4):e11220.

PMID: 38606341 PMC: 11007570. DOI: 10.1002/ece3.11220.

Genome analyses of a placozoan rickettsial endosymbiont show a combination of mutualistic and parasitic traits.

Kamm K, Osigus H, Stadler P, DeSalle R, Schierwater B Sci Rep. 2019; 9(1):17561.

PMID: 31772223 PMC: 6879607. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-54037-w.

Multiple surveys employing a new sample-processing protocol reveal the genetic diversity of placozoans in Japan.

Miyazawa H, Nakano H Ecol Evol. 2018; 8(5):2407-2417.

PMID: 29531663 PMC: 5838039. DOI: 10.1002/ece3.3861.

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