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Dicyema Pax6 and Zic: tool-kit genes in a highly simplified bilaterian

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Ecology and Evolution, October 2007
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Title
Dicyema Pax6 and Zic: tool-kit genes in a highly simplified bilaterian
Published in
BMC Ecology and Evolution, October 2007
DOI 10.1186/1471-2148-7-201
Pubmed ID
Authors

Jun Aruga, Yuri S Odaka, Akiko Kamiya, Hidetaka Furuya

Abstract

Dicyemid mesozoans (Phylum Dicyemida) are simple (8-40-cell) cephalopod endoparasites. They have neither body cavities nor differentiated organs, such as nervous and gastrointestinal systems. Whether dicyemids are intermediate between Protozoa and Metazoa (as represented by their "Mesozoa" classification) or degenerate species of more complex metazoans is controversial. Recent molecular phylogenetic studies suggested that they are simplified bilaterians belonging to the Lophotrochozoa. We cloned two genes developmentally critical in bilaterian animals (Pax6 and Zic), together with housekeeping genes (actin, fructose-bisphosphate aldolase, and ATP synthase beta subunit) from a dicyemid to reveal whether their molecular phylogeny supported the "simplification" hypothesis, and to clarify evolutionary changes in dicyemid gene structure and expression profiles. Genomic/cDNA sequence analysis showed that 1) the Pax6 molecular phylogeny and Zic intron positions supported the idea of dicyemids as reduced bilaterians; 2) the aa sequences deduced from the five genes were highly divergent; and 3) Dicyema genes contained very short introns of uniform length. In situ hybridization analyses revealed that Zic genes were expressed in hermaphroditic gonads, and Pax6 was expressed weakly throughout the developmental stages of the 2 types of embryo and in the hermaphroditic gonads. The accelerated evolutionary rates and very short and uniform intron may represent a part of Dicyema genomic features. The presence and expression of the two tool-kit genes (Pax6 and Zic) in Dicyema suggests that they can be very versatile genes even required for the highly reduced bilaterian like Dicyema. Dicyemids may be useful models of evolutionary body plan simplification.

Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 34 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Czechia 2 6%
United Kingdom 2 6%
Germany 1 3%
New Zealand 1 3%
Singapore 1 3%
Mexico 1 3%
United States 1 3%
Unknown 25 74%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 17 50%
Student > Master 6 18%
Student > Ph. D. Student 4 12%
Other 1 3%
Student > Doctoral Student 1 3%
Other 2 6%
Unknown 3 9%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 26 76%
Environmental Science 3 9%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 2 6%
Unknown 3 9%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 3. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 04 February 2024.
All research outputs
#8,534,976
of 25,374,647 outputs
Outputs from BMC Ecology and Evolution
#1,997
of 3,714 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#29,766
of 89,098 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Ecology and Evolution
#17
of 38 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,374,647 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 43rd percentile – i.e., 43% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,714 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 12.5. This one is in the 35th percentile – i.e., 35% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 89,098 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 16th percentile – i.e., 16% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 38 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 13th percentile – i.e., 13% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.