Acoel development indicates the independent evolution of the bilaterian mouth and anus

Andreas Hejnol () and Mark Q. Martindale
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Andreas Hejnol: Kewalo Marine Laboratory, PBRC, University of Hawaii, 41 Ahui Street, Honolulu, Hawaii 96813, USA
Mark Q. Martindale: Kewalo Marine Laboratory, PBRC, University of Hawaii, 41 Ahui Street, Honolulu, Hawaii 96813, USA

Nature, 2008, vol. 456, issue 7220, 382-386

Abstract: The evolving gut: top and tail Most bilaterian animals have a 'through' gut, with a mouth at one end and an anus at the other. It is commonly believed that in the transition from radial to bilaterial symmetry, both openings evolved simultaneously by the partial, lateral closure of a slit-like blastopore. This idea is called into question by work on acoel flatworms, primitive bilaterians with a mouth but no anus. In studies of the acoel Convolutriloba longifissura, Andreas Hejnol and Mark Martindale use molecular markers to show that the its mouth does indeed correspond with a generic mouth, and that molecular markers characteristic of the hind end of the gut cluster at the (blind) end of the body, in a posterior domain associated with a gonopore. This suggests that the anus evolved many times independently, in association with reproductive structures.

Date: 2008
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DOI: 10.1038/nature07309

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