We have recently published a new paper on cell type evolution in four placozoan species using single-cell transcriptomics. We explore their cell type diversity and study their evolution within the Placozoa phylum and beyond.

Stepwise emergence of the neuronal gene expression program in early animal evolution, Najle, Grau-Bové et al., Cell 2023

One of the most titillating results of our work is the unexpected discovery of remnants of deep homology between neurons, present in most animals but absent in placozoans, and the peptidergic cells that these tiny critters use to coordinate cell behaviours. You can find out more about this in a couple of threaded summaries of our work in Mastodon and Twitter, and—in a virtual first for me—, the general press (here, here, or here).

We were also delighted to learn that we made it to the cover of Cell, too, with this minimalistic cover overlaying a micrography of two Trichoplax sp. H2 placozoans and a phylogenetic tree of homeobox transcription factors, which merrily marries the computational and wet lab aspects of this project:

In parallel, we also set up a companion database where you can browse and compare the single-cell transcriptomic atlases for four placozoan species.

I hope you enjoy it!