English
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
Dutch
Esperanto
French
German
Greek
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
UrduThe sea anemone Nematostella vectensis is potentially immortal. Using molecular genetic methods, developmental biologists led by Ulrich Technau from the University of Vienna have now identified possible candidates for multipotent stem cells in the sea anemone for the first time. These stem cells are regulated by evolutionary highly conserved genes, which in humans are usually only active in the formation of egg and sperm cells, but give ancient animal phyla such as cnidarians a high degree of regenerative capacity to even escape ageing. The results are currently being published in Science Advances and could also provide insights into the human ageing process in the future.
Tag: Department of Neuroscience and Developmental Biology
New insights into the genetics of the common octopus: genome at the chromosome level decoded
Octopuses are fascinating animals – and serve as important model organisms in neuroscience, cognition research and developmental biology. To gain a deeper understanding of their biology and evolutionary history, validated data on the composition of their genome is needed, which has been lacking until now.
Genetic research offers new perspective on the early evolution of animals
A study published by MBARI researchers and their collaborators today in Nature provides new insights about one of the earliest points in animal evolution that happened more than 700 million years ago.
Parasitic worms reveal new insights into the evolution of sex and sex chromosomes
Studying two highly divergent phyla of worms that contain numerous parasites that cause human and livestock diseases, the research group of Qi Zhou from the University of Vienna and Zhejiang University, sheds light on how sexual reproduction and subsequent great diversity of sex chromosomes might have evolved.