jellyfish = superficially peloric worms

[eub]

NYtimes:

Much to their surprise, the scientists found that some genes switched on in embryos were nearly identical to the genes that determined the head-to-tail axis of bilaterians, including humans. More surprisingly, the genes switched on in the same head-to-tail pattern as in bilaterians.

Further studies showed that cnidarians used other genes from the bilaterian tool kit. The same genes that patterned the front and back of the bilaterian embryo, for example, were produced on opposite sides of the anemone embryo.
[...]
"At the molecular level, they have a lot of body regions that aren't recognizable," said Dr. John R. Finnerty, a biologist at Boston University who is collaborating with Dr. Martindale.

Dr. Finnerty expects that the nervous system of cnidarians will turn out to be particularly complex. "The nervous system of a cnidarian is described as a nerve net, but that's a textbook simplification," he said.

He predicts that research will show that this net is divided into specialized regions like the human brain.

Comments

[hattifattener]

Whoa, neat. (Also, "cnidarian" is fun to spell. Cnidarian cnidarian cnidarian.)

I wonder why the Energy Department has a genome institute?

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

I wonder why the Energy Department has a genome institute?

From memory, because they wanted to anticipate certain types of biological warfare. I got into bioinformatics back in the day the main DNA sequence database was at Los Alamos.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

SWEET!