El petit amfiox: el miratge de l'origen dels vertebrats

Authors

  • Jordi Garcia-Fernàndez
  • Èlia Benito-Gutiérrez

Abstract

The little amphious: a mirage to the origen of vertebrates. The origin of vertebrates is one of the top interests for many scientists and the society, and our favorite animal has occupied this privileged position for more than a century, reflecting in a mirage, as a living fossil, what occurred in this critical landmark of evolution. It is not only morphologically the closest living relative of Chordates, but also possesses a preduplicative genome, a simple model for the genome of all vertebrates, including humans. The analysis of the amphioxus genome has served to clarify the origin of our own genome, and as showed it is in a key position to understand the origin and functioning of gene families and gene networks critical for embryonic development and physiology. Besides, technical advances in its reproduction and experimentation make plausible to dream in illuminating the secrets of our origins and the functioning of the genome.

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Published

2012-01-19