Maria Arnone

Abstract Cell types are fundamental functional units that can be traced across the tree of life. Rapid advances in single-cell technologies, coupled with the phylogenetic expansion in genome sequencing, present opportunities for the molecular characterization of cells across a broad range of organisms. Despite these developments, our understanding of eukaryotic cell diversity remains limited and we are far from decoding this diversity from genome sequences.

Abstract Regulation of gene expression is arguably the main mechanism underlying the phenotypic diversity of tissues within and between species. Here we assembled an extensive transcriptomic dataset covering 8 tissues across 20 bilaterian species and performed analyses using a symmetric phylogeny that allowed the combined and parallel investigation of gene expression evolution between vertebrates and insects.

Introduction Regeneration is widespread across metazoans, with representatives from most phyla presenting various degrees of ability to reconstruct lost or damaged body parts. However, the evolution of regeneration and the factors that determine its distribution across the animal kingdom are far from being clear (Sánchez Alvarado, 2000; Giangrande and Licciano, 2014). Most animals, including humans, regenerate specific cell types, such as the epidermis and hair cells, on a daily basis.