How animals emerged? A new perspective based on genomic data. Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo. ICREA Research Professor at Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC-UPF) and Associate Professor Dept. Genètica (UB)

Título: How animals emerged? A new perspective based on genomic data

Ponente: Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo. ICREA Research Professor at Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC-UPF) and Associate Professor Dept. Genètica (UB)

Resumen:

The emergence of multicellular animals or metazoans from their single-celled ancestors is one of the most important evolutionary transitions in the history of life. I will discuss how genome data from close unicellular relatives of Metazoa are showing that the unicellular ancestor that gave rise to Metazoa was genetically much more complex than previously thought. This suggest that different evolutionary mechanisms, besides gene innovation, were involved in the unicelluar-to-multicellular transition that gave rise to Metazoa. I will discuss these mechanisms and propose a new evolutionary scenario for the origin of animal multicellularity and the emergence of the different animal cell types.