T. Brunet

Environmentally regulated clonal-aggregative multicellularity in a choanoflagellate

This study shows that the choanoflagellate Choanoeca flexa forms multicellular sheets through clonal or aggregative mechanisms, adapting to environmental changes in splash pools.

Swimming, Feeding and Inversion of Multicellular Choanoflagellate Sheets

This study develops fluid dynamical and mechanical models to explain the swimming, feeding, and inversion of multicellular choanoflagellate sheets of Choanoeca flexa.

Nitric oxide signaling controls collective contractions in a colonial choanoflagellate

This study shows that nitric oxide signaling via the sGC/cGMP pathway controls collective contractions in the colonial choanoflagellate Choanoeca flexa, similar to its role in early animals.

A flagellate-to-amoeboid switch in the closest living relatives of animals

This study shows that choanoflagellates can switch from a flagellate to an amoeboid phenotype under spatial confinement, suggesting myosin-mediated amoeboid motility was present in the last common ancestor of animals and choanoflagellates.

Light-regulated collective contractility in a multicellular choanoflagellate

A newly described choanoflagellate species forms cup-shaped colonies that reversibly invert their curvature in response to light.

The origin of animal multicellularity and cell differentiation

The paper investigates the evolutionary origins of animal multicellularity and cell differentiation by analyzing genomic and developmental mechanisms in ancestral species.