Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of RAS, Moscow, Russian Federation.
Department of Neuroscience and McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
Methods Mol Biol. 2024;2757:103-122. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-3642-8_3.
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.
扁盘动物在形态上是最简单的自由生活动物。它们为我们提供了一个独特的机会之窗，让我们既可以了解动物组织的起源，又可以了解未来系统和合成生物学的生命法则。然而，尽管我们对它们进行了 100 多年的研究，但对它们的组织、自然栖息地和生活策略仍知之甚少。在这里，我们介绍这个独特的动物门，并强调一些对拓宽生物医学科学前沿至关重要的方向。特别是，了解扁盘动物生物多样性、细胞身份、连通性、繁殖以及行为的细胞基础的基因组基础，是未来研究的关键热点。
