Unit for Integrative Zoology, Department of Evolutionary Biology
University of Vienna

Abstract

Mollusks are one of the most-diverse bilaterian clades with a tremendous fossil record, however, scenarios inferring the evolutionary relationships to other spiralian clades are scarce. In this talk, I will discuss my work in light of our current knowledge on this fascinating group and will introduce the taxa I mainly work on, i.e. the cephalopod Idiosepius notoides, the scaphopod Antalis entalis, as well as the aculiferan polyplacophoran Acanthochitona fascicularis. Applying classical morphological techniques as well as state-of-the-art single-cell RNA sequencing in combination with modern staining techniques such as Hybridization Chain Reaction (HCR) or classical in situ hybridization experiments, my work contributes to our understanding of the development and evolution of molluscan body plans and their constituent cell types. Pharmacological incubation assays as well as the genetic manipulation of individual cells by microinjection shed light on the role of candidate genes such as BMPs or Hox genes in the Mollusca. As an outlook, I will present two other spiralian taxa of phylogenetically informative positions, the chaetognath Spadella cephaloptera and the entoproct Loxosomella, both crucial to understand the evolution of organ systems such as the nervous system.