![]() ![]() However, writing in the journal Nature, the team explain that the majority of genes switched on in the outermost layers of the starfish body corresponded only to those activated in the heads of acorn worms and vertebrates. They then compared these with genes that are switched on in similar layers in acorn worms – animals with twofold symmetry that are closely related to echinoderms – and vertebrates.īoth acorn worms and vertebrates show clear differences in the genes that are switched on in these layers in the head and trunk. The team say they made their discovery by looking at which genes are switched on in outermost layers of adult Patiria miniata, a type of starfish. “It doesn’t look like the trunk is there at all,” said Thompson. Now researchers say the unusual adult body plan of starfish and other echinoderms does not arise as a result of the central part of the body, or trunk, giving rise to five identical parts. The situation is further complicated by the fact echinoderms begin life as larvae with twofold symmetry, before metamorphosing into their adult forms. “How any bit of an echinoderm related to any bit of any other organism in terms of its general body plan was really unclear,” said Dr Jeff Thompson, a co-author on the study at the University of Southampton.
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