Surprisingly complex T-box gene complement in diploblastic metazoans

Ctenophores and cnidarians are two metazoan groups that evolved at least 600 Ma, predating the Cambrian explosion. Although both groups are commonly categorized as diploblastic animals without derivatives of the mesodermal germ layer, ctenophores possess definitive contractile muscle cells. T-box family transcription factors are an evolutionarily ancient gene family, arising in the common ancestor of metazoans, and have been divided into eight groups in five distinct subfamilies, many of which are involved in the specification of mesodermal as well as ectodermally and endodermally derived structures. Here, we report the cloning and expression of five T-box genes from a ctenophore, Mnemiopsis leidyi. Phylogenetic analyses demonstrated that ctenophores possess members of at least three of the five T-box subfamilies, and expression studies suggested distinct roles of each T-box genes during gastrulation and early organogenesis. Moreover, genome searches of the sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis (anthozoan cnidarian), showed at least 13 T-box genes in Nematostella, which are divided into at least six distinct groups in the same three subfamilies found in ctenophores. Our results from two diploblastic animals indicate that the common ancestor of eumetazoans had a complex set of T-box genes and that two distinct subfamilies might have appeared during triploblastic evolution.