Cited by 332Protist diversity and phylogenyMarine Invertebrate Physiology and EcologyDevelopmental Biology and Gene Regulation

The origin of Metazoa: a unicellular perspective

Sebé-Pedrós, Arnau, Degnan, Bernard M., Ruiz-Trillo, Iñaki·2017·Nature Reviews Genetics

Abstract

The first animals evolved from an unknown single-celled ancestor in the Precambrian period. Recently, the identification and characterization of the genomic and cellular traits of the protists most closely related to animals have shed light on the origin of animals. Comparisons of animals with these unicellular relatives allow us to reconstruct the first evolutionary steps towards animal multicellularity. Here, we review the results of these investigations and discuss their implications for understanding the earliest stages of animal evolution, including the origin of metazoan genes and genome function.

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Crossref · 10.1038/nrg.2017.21

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  • Many components of the MC toolkit were already in place in the unicellular ancestors.

    “although many components of the MC toolkit were already in place in the unicellular ancestors [203]”

    From Fundamental constraints to the logic of living systems (2024) · cites this paper as [203]

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Authors
Sebé-Pedrós, A., Degnan, B. M., & Ruiz-Trillo, I.
Affiliations
  • Weizmann Institute of Science (IL)
  • The University of Queensland (AU)
Corresponding author
Sebé-Pedrós, Arnau
Venue
Nature Reviews Genetics
Published
2017-05-08
Volume
18
Issue
8
Pages
498-512
ISSN
  • 1471-0056 (ISSN-L)
  • 1471-0064
OpenAlex
W2614029615
Cited by
332
References
28
Citations by year
2026: 14 · 2025: 38 · 2024: 39 · 2023: 30 · 2022: 47 · 2021: 49 · 2020: 32 · 2019: 45 · 2018: 30 · 2017: 8
FWCI
2.95
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Nature Reviews Genetics (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Protist diversity and phylogeny
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Marine Invertebrate Physiology and Ecology
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Developmental Biology and Gene Regulation
Keywords
metazoan origin, evolution of multicellularity, animal evolution, protists, Precambrian, genome function, intercellular communication, comparative genomics, functional genomics
MeSH terms
Animals, Biological Evolution, Humans, Phylogeny, Eukaryota

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