Abstract
Placozoans are morphologically the simplest free-living animals. They represent a unique window of opportunities to understand both the origin of the animal organization and the rules of life for the system and synthetic biology of the future. However, despite more than 100 years of their investigations, we know little about their organization, natural habitats, and life strategies. Here, we introduce this unique animal phylum and highlight some directions vital to broadening the frontiers of the biomedical sciences. In particular, understanding the genomic bases of placozoan biodiversity, cell identity, connectivity, reproduction, and cellular bases of behavior are critical hot spots for future studies.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported in part by the Human Frontiers Science Program (RGP0060/2017) and National Science Foundation (IOS-1557923) grants to L.L.M. Research reported in this publication was also supported in part by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health under award number R01NS114491 (to L.L.M). D.R. was supported by the Russian Science Foundation grant (23-14-00050). The content is solely the authors’ responsibility and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
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Romanova, D.Y., Moroz, L.L. (2024). Brief History of Placozoa. In: Moroz, L.L. (eds) Ctenophores. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2757. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3642-8_3
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