Nature Communications (Aug 2020)

Genes with spiralian-specific protein motifs are expressed in spiralian ciliary bands

  • Longjun Wu,
  • Laurel S. Hiebert,
  • Marleen Klann,
  • Yale Passamaneck,
  • Benjamin R. Bastin,
  • Stephan Q. Schneider,
  • Mark Q. Martindale,
  • Elaine C. Seaver,
  • Svetlana A. Maslakova,
  • J. David Lambert

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17780-7
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 1
pp. 1 – 11

Abstract

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Spiralians have ciliary bands, used for locomotion and feeding, but defining molecular features of these structures are unknown. Here, the authors report a gene, Lophotrochin, that contains a protein domain only found in spiralians, and specifically expressed in diverse ciliary bands across the group, which provides a molecular signature for these structures.