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Early
Adopter
November/December 2008
The
pinhead-sized creatures called Trichoplax adhaerens (one appears below) were
discovered clinging to the walls of a saltwater aquarium in the 1880s. The
simple, amoeba-like organism, known as a placazoan, is believed to be among the
first multicellular animals to evolve, about 600 million years ago.
Yet
their DNA is surprisingly complex—and familiar. Recently, molecular biologist
Stephen L. Dellaporta and an international group of collaborators sequenced the T. adhaerens genome. (The study appeared in the August 21 early online edition of Nature.) Although the genome is a fraction
the size of our own, with 98 million base pairs versus 3 billion, it has many
of the sequences for key genetic pathways and regulatory processes that are
common to all animals. In fact, said Dellaporta, "Trichoplax shares over 80 percent of its genes
with humans."  |
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