Molluscan evo-devo research
Mollusca is the second most speciose animal phylum and the largest marine phylum in the animal kingdom, with over 100,000 described extant species and among the first bilaterians to appear in fossil records. They have survived several mass extinction events and represent one of the oldest and evolutionarily most successful groups of marine invertebrates. Their great success can be largely attributed to the tremendous diversity of their morphology in shells and soft bodies – the astonishing level of diversity that is unprecedented in the animal kingdom. Despite their great evolutionary and biological significance, molluscs are largely neglected from genomic perspective, and our and recent studies have suggested molluscs as excellent research models for evo-devo studies, such as Hox subcluster-mediated body plan diversification and evolutionary origination of noncephalic eyes (Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2017 cover story), the single-intercalation larval origin and biphasic life history evolution (Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2020), and the evolution of ancient homomorphic sex chromosomes (Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2022 cover story). How astonishingly diverse species and morphology of molluscs originated and evolved are fascinating questions from both developmental and evolutionary perspectives. The major research interests of our group are largely driven by these big questions and we will be aiming to address these questions by using the state of art technologies and approaches.
Selected Publications
1. Wang S#, Zhang J#, Jiao W#, Li J#, Xun X#, Sun Y#, Guo X#, Huan P#, Dong B, Zhang L, Hu X, Sun X, Wang J, Zhao C, Wang Y, Wang D, Huang X, Wang R, Lv J, Li Y, Zhang Z, Liu B, Lu W, Hui Y, Liang J, Zhou Z, Hou R, Li X, Liu Y, Li H, Ning X, Lin Y, Zhao L, Xing Q, Dou J, Li Y, Mao J, Guo H, Dou H, Li T, Mu C, Jiang W, Fu Q, Fu X, Miao Y, Liu J, Yu Q, Li R, Liao H, Li X, Kong Y, Jiang Z, Chourrout D*, Li R*, Bao Z*. Scallop genome provides insights into evolution of bilaterian karyotype and development. Nature Ecology & Evolution. 2017, 1: 0120. (Cover Story; Behind the Paper: The "fossil" genome of scallop Patinopecten yessoensis; NEE News & Views: Genome evolution: Shellfish genes; ESI highly cited paper)
2. Wang J#, Zhang L#, Lian S#, Qin Z#, Zhu X#, Dai X, Huang Z, Ke C, Zhou Z, Wei J, Liu P, Hu N, Zeng Q, Dong B, Dong Y, Kong D, Zhang Z, Liu S, Xia Y, Li Y, Zhao L, Xing Q, Huang X, Hu X, Bao Z, Wang S*. Evolutionary transcriptomics of metazoan biphasic life cycle supports a single intercalation origin of metazoan larvae. Nature Ecology & Evolution. 2020, 4: 725-736. (NEE News & Views: The origin of metazoan larvae; Behind the Paper: The mysterious origin of metazoan larvae: Larva-first or Adult-first?The “fossil” genome of scallop Patinopecten yessoensis)
3. Han W#, Liu L#, Wang J#, Wei H#, Li Y#, Zhang L#, Guo Z, Li Y, Liu T, Zeng Q, Xing Q, Shu Y, Wang T, Yang Y, Zhang M, Li R, Yu J, Pu Z, Lv J, Lian S, Hu J, Hu X, Bao Z, Bao L*, Zhang L*, Wang S*. Ancient homomorphy of molluscan sex chromosomes sustained by reversible sex-biased genes and sex determiner translocation. Nature Ecology & Evolution. 2022, 6: 1891-1906. (Cover story)