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Flagellar apparatus structure of choanocyte in Sycon sp. and its significance for phylogeny of Porifera

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Abstract

The problem of the origin of Metazoa has been one of the most discussed for nearly the last one and a half centuries. Some 20 years ago, morphological approaches were replaced with molecules, but the problem then became more complex. At the same time, morphological data were incomplete, and therefore, this approach can still help in comparison with choanoflagellates and sponges—two sister groups having uniflagellated cells with a collar. The structure of the flagellar apparatus has phylogenetic significance, but sponge choanocytes are poorly studied in this respect, and we still do not know what the ancestral kinetid of Porifera looks like. The kinetid structure of choanocytes in Sycon sp. is investigated here for the first time, and a 3D reconstruction of the kinetid provided. It is composed of a flagellar kinetosome with a nuclear fibrillar root and a basal foot with a few microtubules; the accessory centriole lies orthogonal to and just below the foot of the kinetosome, and a dictyosome is near the centriole. This kinetid is similar to that of the choanocyte of Corticium candelabrum (Homoscleromorpha) and is considered to be the ancestral type for the whole branch Calcarea + Homoscleromorpha.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank I. A. Tikhomirov for providing the material (adult Sycon) from the marine aquarium; S. M. Efremova and E. L. Gonobobleva for discussion on sponge histology and cytology, methods of fixation for EM; A. A. Kobzeva for some methodological recommendation. We also thank the laboratory of Electron Microscopy ZIN RAS and the Research Resource Center for Molecular and Cell Technologies (RRC MCT) at St. Petersburg State University (SPbSU) for access to the EM facilities. A project was partly supported by the RAS Presidium program “Problems of life origin and biosphere development.” We are grateful to reviewers, for the comments and improvement of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zoological Institute RAS, Universitetskaya emb. 1, 199034, St. Petersburg, Russia

    Igor R. Pozdnyakov & Sergey A. Karpov

  2. St. Petersburg State University, Universitetskaya emb. 7/9, 199034, St. Petersburg, Russia

    Sergey A. Karpov

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  1. Igor R. Pozdnyakov
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  2. Sergey A. Karpov
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Correspondence to Sergey A. Karpov.

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Communicated by A. Schmidt-Rhaesa.

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Pozdnyakov, I.R., Karpov, S.A. Flagellar apparatus structure of choanocyte in Sycon sp. and its significance for phylogeny of Porifera. Zoomorphology 132, 351–357 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00435-013-0193-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00435-013-0193-4

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