最新研究结果揭示动物细胞起源

A new study in Nature disproves a long-standing idea that multi-celled animals evolved from a single-celled ancestor resembling a modern sponge cell. Instead, it was probably quite similar to a stem cell.

《自然》发表最新研究成果推翻了一个长期存在的观点，即多细胞动物是从一个类似于现代海绵细胞的单细胞祖先进化而来的。相反，它可能与干细胞非常相似。

A widely held—but rarely tested—hypothesis for the origin of animals is that they evolved from a unicellular ancestor, with an apical cilium surrounded by a microvillar collar, that structurally resembled modern sponge choanocytes and choanoflagellates

Instead, our results are consistent with the first animal cell being able to transition between multiple states in a manner similar to modern transdifferentiating and stem cells.