[go: up one dir, main page]
Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

A radical evolutionary makeover gave echinoderms their unusual body plan

Echinoderms such as starfish are unusual for their five-fold body symmetry. Maps of gene-expression patterns show how this body plan was acquired, and that the genes specifying head structures do the heavy lifting.
  1. Thurston Lacalli

    1. Thurston Lacalli is affiliated with the Biology Department, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W 3N5, Canada.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

Starfish and sea urchins belong to a group of marine invertebrates known as echinoderms, which stand out among other animals because of their unusual body plan. Most animal phyla are part of the group Bilateria, united by having bilateral symmetry, a head and a tail end (anterior–posterior axis) and opposing dorsal and ventral surfaces, corresponding to the back and abdomen. Echinoderms are bilaterians, but are something of an outlier because they replaced this basic bilaterian body plan with one in which five identical body parts radiate out from a central mouth (Fig. 1). Writing in Nature, Formery et al.1 reveal how echinoderms evolved this peculiar five-fold symmetry.

Access options

Access through your institution

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 623, 485-486 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-03123-1

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 08 November 2023: This article incorrectly stated that echinoderms are by far humanity’s closest relatives among invertebrates. In fact, they are among humanity’s closest invertebrate relatives.

References

  1. Formery, L. et al. Nature 623, 555–561 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Smith, A. B., Zamora, S. & Álvaro, J. J. Nature Commun. 4, 1385 (2013).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Zamora, S. & Rahman, I. A. Palaeontology 57, 1105–1119 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Budd, G. E. Curr. Biol. 30, R780–R782 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Lowe, C. J. et al. Nature 520, 456–465 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Gee, H. Across the Bridge: Understanding the Origin of Vertebrates (Univ. Chicago Press, 2018).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Lowe, C. J. et al. Cell 113, 853–865 (2003).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Lacalli, T. EvoDevo 5, 46 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Adachi, S. et al. Dev. Dyn. 247, 1297–1307 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Blount, Z. D., Lenski, R. E. & Losos, J. B. Science 362, eaam5979 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Bengtson, S. Paleontol. Soc. Papers 8, 289–317 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Caron, J. B., Conway Morris, S. & Shu, D. PLoS ONE 5, e9586 (2010).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Competing Interests

The author declares no completing interests.

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

  • Research Associate (Postdoc)

    registration number: ZE-0098-synmikro-wmz-2024 Entry date: as soon as possible Application deadline: 2024-11-14 Salary: E 13 TV-H Duration: 31.07.2...

    35037 Marburg, Hessen (DE)

    Philipps-Universität Marburg

  • Postdoctoral Fellow in Medicinal Chemistry for Cancer Drug Discovery

    Postdoctoral position in medicinal chemistry to develop small molecule inhibitors for targeted therapies in cancer.

    University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

    University of Michigan - Department of Pathology

  • Suzhou Institute of Systems Medicine Seeking High-level Talents

    Full Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor

    Suzhou, Jiangsu, China

    Suzhou Institute of Systems Medicine (ISM)

  • Assistant Professor

    Faculty positions at the Assistant Professor level in Cancer, Cardiovascular, Metabolic Health, Brain, Mind, and Behavior.

    Chicago, Illinois

    Northwestern University Recruitment to Transform Under-Representation and achieve Equity – an NIH FIRST Award

  • Instructional Faculty Positions

    The Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering (BESE) Division at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), a globally ...

    Saudi Arabia (SA)

    King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links