Introduction to the 2024 Chordate Origins, Evolution and Development SICB Symposium.

Abstract

The evolution of the distinct chordate body plan has intrigued scientists for over a hundred and seventy years. Modern genomics and transcriptomics have allowed the elucidation of the Developmental Gene Regulatory Networks (GRNs) underlying the developmental programs for particular tissues and body axes in invertebrates and vertebrates. This has been most revealing in the Deuterostomia, the superphylum in which chordates evolved. The time was ripe to gather those working on deuterostome developmental GRNs to revisit the development and evolution of chordates and discuss the evolution of this unique body plan at the SICB 2024 meetings in Seattle, WA. It has been several years since the genomes of the major deuterostome clades have been sequenced - echinoderms, hemichordates, tunicates, lancelets and vertebrates. Genomic analyses have shown that lancelets have a genome and body plan that closely resemble the vertebrates, although phylogenomic analyses suggest that the tunicates are the sister group of the vertebrates. The evolution of the sessile and sometimes colonial adult tunicates was likely from a motile, lancelet-like ancestor. Scientists from all over the world converged at the SICB meetings in Seattle to discuss the current ideas of how chordates evolved. Some common mechanisms and themes emerged and are captured in this ICB volume on Chordate Origins, Evolution and Development.