Tracing key bilaterian traits in cnidarians
My group is interested in the evolution and development of animal body plans. We have established the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis as a model organism among cnidarians to trace the origin of key bilaterian traits, such as bilaterality, triploblasty and central nervous system. We approach these questions using a range of methods including genomics, single-cell transcriptomics and classical developmental biology.
Keywords
EvoDevo / Cnidaria / Nematostella vectensis / body plan evolution / genome evolution