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Christopher Lowe
Associate Professor of Biology
Department of Biology, Hopkins Marine Station
Stanford University
Making a head in deuterostomes: How regulatory conservation underlies body plan disparity
Abstract: The deuterostomes are a bilaterian lineage that includes echinoderms, hemichordates and chordates. These three phyla are characterized by a distinctive body plan that share few unambiguous morphological characters, which has made reconstructing the evolution of this group extremely challenging. We have focused on comparing anterior developmental regulatory networks between representative species of hemichordates and echinoderms with contrasting life histories to investigate the molecular anatomy that underlies early axial properties of these groups. Using this approach, we have been able to establish equivalent domains between phyla at different life history stages, and even define the anterior territory of the radial body plan of adult echinoderms, an enduring zoological puzzles.
Host: Professor Mansi Srivastava