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In this new research, through a set of experiments conducted in collaboration with Dr Ralf Jauch's lab in The University of Hong Kong / Centre for Translational Stem Cell Biology, the team introduced choanoflagellate Sox genes into mouse cells, replacing the native Sox2 gene achieving reprogramming towards the pluripotent stem cell state.

To elucidate the relationships at the base of the animal tree, the researchers assembled sequences of each chromosome for the comb jelly Bolinopsis microptera, two deep-sea sponges and three unicellular relatives of animals: a choanoflagellate, an ichthyosporean and a filasterean amoeba.

In spite of the similarities to animal tissue folding, such folding in just one or possibly two choanoflagellate species means it probably evolved independently from animals using the commonly inherited apical actin-myosin ring.

In this choanoflagellate, such folding at its very simplest is no less important to the survival of a little microbial oddball.

"Light-regulated collective contractility in a multicellular choanoflagellate."