“Though we think of a sponge as a simple creature whose skeleton we take to the bathtub, it has a lot of the major biochemical and developmental pathways we associate with complex functions in humans and other more complex animals,” she said. “But there are certain missing components. Future studies will reveal how sponges operate…
Sponge genome project at UC Berkeley Newsroom
“Our hypothesis is that multicellularity and cancer are two sides of the same coin,” said Rokhsar, program head for computational genomics at JGI and a professor of molecular and cell biology and of physics at UC Berkeley. “If you are a cell in a multicellular organism, you have to cooperate with other cells in your…
Sponge genome project in InSciences
He explained that the conclusion of that early work –– the finding that genes that encode a synapse are present in the sponge –– has important implications. “The conclusion of that paper said that what evolution did was exaptation,” said Kosik. “This is a very important technical word. Evolution takes something that was evolved for…
Sponge genome project on LaboratoryEquipment.com
In a paper appearing in the today’s issue of the journal Nature, a team of researchers led by Daniel Rokhsar of the Univ. of California, Berkeley, and the Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute (JGI), report the draft genome sequence of the sea sponge Amphimedon queenslandica and several insights the genome gives into the origins…
Sponge genome project on Softpedia
“What’s exciting is the new things we’re learning about animal evolution. For example, sponges have embryos, and having the genome helps us look at how they develop and make specific connections to developmental pathways in other animals. It’s the kind of thing that will lead to a much clearer understanding of what the very first metazoans…
Sponge genome project on ScienceDaily
In a paper published online in the journal Nature, Rice University’s Nicholas Putnam is among a group of scientists who have established a draft genome sequence for Amphimedon queenslandica, a sponge found off the coast of Australia. The genome is helping evolutionary biologists connect the dots as they look for DNA sequences shared by metazoans,…
Terephthalate-degrading consortia
Terepthalate is the byproduct of a common compound used extensively by the plastics industry. The volume of terephthalate wastewater generated is equivalent to the amount of wastewater generated by 20 million people. Syntrophic communities are composed of bacteria that break down organic matter and methanogens that remove the hydrogen released to ensure the degradation process…
Sponge genome project on GenomeWeb
Sponges, some of the earliest branching animals, are multicellular but lack a nervous system, gut, and some other organ systems found in most animals, the researchers explained. And fossil evidence going back more than 600 million years suggests sponge ancestors appeared remarkably similar to sponges living today. In an effort to learn more about early…
Sponge genome project on EurekAlert
All living animals are descended from the common ancestor of sponges and humans, which lived more than 600 million years ago. A sponge-like creature may have been the first organism with more than one cell type and the ability to develop from a fertilized egg produced by the merger of sperm and egg cells.– that…
Sponge genome project on UC Newsroom
Four scientists from UC Santa Barbara contributed to the sequencing of the genome of a Great Barrier Reef marine sponge, from a 650 million-year-old group of organisms — a project that indicates there were astonishingly rich genetic resources available at the dawn of the animal kingdom. The sequencing also reveals some basic information about cancer….