Animal development initiates with a single fertilized egg, proceeding with cell division, specification, morphogenesis, and finally to differentiation and homeostasis to build and maintain a complete body plan. All these biological processes, which are coordinated in time and space, are often under precise spatial-temporal regulatory mechanisms acting across different scales: cells, tissues, organs, individuals, and even colonies. To achieve a system-level understanding of the regulatory mechanisms that direct animal development and regeneration, researchers have embraced fast-evolving omics technologies for a global view of molecular components and dynamics during these processes.
Invertebrate chordates (tunicates and cephalochordates) have a long history as model organisms in which to study the molecular mechanisms of embryonic development, organogenesis, and regeneration, especially those that are most likely to be shared with their close relatives the vertebrates. Combined with the traditional advantages of many invertebrate chordates like rapid growth, optical transparency, and amenability to molecular perturbations, new technologies have emerged that have allowed them to join other, more intensely studied model organisms to answer the most essential questions in cell and developmental biology. Many of the latest omics technologies, such as RNA-Seq, single-cell RNA-Seq, ATAC-seq, Hi-C, and mass spectrometry have been applied to invertebrate chordates to gain insights into the molecular and evolutionary mechanisms that have shaped chordate body plans.
This Research Topic aims to highlight the recent progress in applying systems biology and/or omics approaches to answer outstanding questions in invertebrate chordate development and evolution. This collection will emphasize using the latest omics approaches and computational analysis to gain a systematic understanding of the multi-level regulatory inputs governing the development and evolution of invertebrate chordates. We also encourage submissions focusing on comparisons to the regulatory mechanisms operating in vertebrates or other deuterostomes, and how this helps our understanding of chordate evolutionary history.
We welcome Original Research, Review and other article types falling under invertebrate chordate development:
• The regulation of cell-type specification and/or differentiation.
• Cellular morphogenesis, such as migration, asymmetric cell division, cell shape changes, axon guidance, etc.
• Patterning and body plan formation.
• Organogenesis and tissue regeneration.
• New genome/transcriptome/proteome assembly and annotation.
• Applications of innovative technologies to the study of invertebrate chordates.
• Comparative omics approaches in multiple species including invertebrate chordates.
• Computational pipelines and tools for next-generation data mining, illustration, and analysis.
Animal development initiates with a single fertilized egg, proceeding with cell division, specification, morphogenesis, and finally to differentiation and homeostasis to build and maintain a complete body plan. All these biological processes, which are coordinated in time and space, are often under precise spatial-temporal regulatory mechanisms acting across different scales: cells, tissues, organs, individuals, and even colonies. To achieve a system-level understanding of the regulatory mechanisms that direct animal development and regeneration, researchers have embraced fast-evolving omics technologies for a global view of molecular components and dynamics during these processes.
Invertebrate chordates (tunicates and cephalochordates) have a long history as model organisms in which to study the molecular mechanisms of embryonic development, organogenesis, and regeneration, especially those that are most likely to be shared with their close relatives the vertebrates. Combined with the traditional advantages of many invertebrate chordates like rapid growth, optical transparency, and amenability to molecular perturbations, new technologies have emerged that have allowed them to join other, more intensely studied model organisms to answer the most essential questions in cell and developmental biology. Many of the latest omics technologies, such as RNA-Seq, single-cell RNA-Seq, ATAC-seq, Hi-C, and mass spectrometry have been applied to invertebrate chordates to gain insights into the molecular and evolutionary mechanisms that have shaped chordate body plans.
This Research Topic aims to highlight the recent progress in applying systems biology and/or omics approaches to answer outstanding questions in invertebrate chordate development and evolution. This collection will emphasize using the latest omics approaches and computational analysis to gain a systematic understanding of the multi-level regulatory inputs governing the development and evolution of invertebrate chordates. We also encourage submissions focusing on comparisons to the regulatory mechanisms operating in vertebrates or other deuterostomes, and how this helps our understanding of chordate evolutionary history.
We welcome Original Research, Review and other article types falling under invertebrate chordate development:
• The regulation of cell-type specification and/or differentiation.
• Cellular morphogenesis, such as migration, asymmetric cell division, cell shape changes, axon guidance, etc.
• Patterning and body plan formation.
• Organogenesis and tissue regeneration.
• New genome/transcriptome/proteome assembly and annotation.
• Applications of innovative technologies to the study of invertebrate chordates.
• Comparative omics approaches in multiple species including invertebrate chordates.
• Computational pipelines and tools for next-generation data mining, illustration, and analysis.
