Filopodia are fine actin-based cellular projections used for both environmental sensing and cell motility, and they are essential organelles for metazoan cells. In this study, we reconstruct the origin of metazoan filopodia and microvilli. We first report on the evolutionary assembly of the filopodial molecular toolkit and show that homologs of many metazoan filopodial components, including fas...

Filopodia are fine actin-based cellular projections used for both environmental sensing and cell motility, and they are essential organelles for metazoan cells. In this study, we reconstruct the origin of metazoan filopodia and microvilli. We first report on the evolutionary assembly of the filopodial molecular toolkit and show that homologs of many metazoan filopodial components, including fas...

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 multicellularity is correlated with the evolution of embryogenesis, which presumably was underpinned by a gene regulatory network reliant on the differential activation of signaling pathways and transcription factors. Man...

Sex is pervasive throughout eukaryotes, yet many species have not been caught in the act. Now, a sexual cycle has been discovered in the choanoflagellate Salpingoeca rosetta, a pre-metazoan evolutionary model, opening a window on metazoan sexual evolution.

Filopodia are fine actin-based cellular projections used for both environmental sensing and cell motility, and they are essential organelles for metazoan cells. In this study we reconstruct the origin of metazoan filopodia and microvilli. We first report on the evolutionary assembly of the filopodial molecular toolkit and show that homologs of many metazoan filopodial components, including fasc...

A paradigm system for the evolution of multicellular animals is constructed. In many evolutionary models, the non-linearity of the genome-phenome mapping is ignored. However, the results of evolutionary paradigm systems that did include a non-trivial, complex genome-phenome mapping have suggested a framework joining seemingly conflicting evolutionary “points of view” like neutral evolution, Pun...

Notch family members are generally recognized as signaling molecules that control various cellular responses in metazoan organisms. Early fly studies and our mammalian studies demonstrated that Notch family members are also cell adhesion molecules; however, information on the physiological roles of this function and its origin is limited. In this review, we discuss the potential present and anc...