9:45 AM - 10:00 AM
[BPT26-04] Reconstruction of the gene sets for the developmental signaling ligands in ancestral protostome animals
Keywords:paleogenomics, metazoan evolution, evo-devo, signaling ligand genes, Cambrian explosion, lophotrochozoans
Recently, a draft genome sequence of the pearl oyster Pinctada fucata was reported, enabling to infer a possible evolutionary scenario of the gene sets that are important for body plan formation in protostomes including both lophotrochozoans and ecdysozoans. We report the results of phylogenetic character mapping carried out for the gene families that encode developmental signaling ligands (Fgf, Hedgehog, PDGF/VEGF, TGF-b, and Wnt families) to reconstruct possible copy numbers of signaling molecule-coding genes for hypothetical ancestral protostomes. Our reconstruction suggests that P. fucata retains the ancestral protostome gene complement, providing further justifications for the use of this taxon as a model organism for developmental genomics research.