Re:Mosaicism: The genome varies from cell to cell
by carapace on Tuesday May 22, 2018 @02:45PM
(#17128388)
One of my favorite creatures in all the world is the lowly Trichoplax:
> Trichoplax adhaerens is the only extant representative of phylum Placozoa, which is a basal group of multicellular animals (metazoa). Trichoplax are very flat organisms around a millimetre in diameter, lacking any organs or internal structures. They have two cellular layers: the top epitheloid layer is made of ciliated "cover cells" flattened toward the outside of the organism, and the bottom layer is made up of cylinder cells that possess cilia used in locomotion, and gland cells that lack cilia. Between these layers is the fibre syncytium, a liquid-filled cavity strutted open by star-like fibres.
I like these creatures because they are on the cusp of multicellularity: you can force them through a sieve that separates their cells which will then crawl around independently and try to reform the organism. You can dye two trichoplax different colors, force them through the sieve, and the cells will mix and form piebald organisms. So, they're like tribes of cells (IMHO.)
> Trichoplax adhaerens is the only extant representative of phylum Placozoa, which is a basal group of multicellular animals (metazoa). Trichoplax are very flat organisms around a millimetre in diameter, lacking any organs or internal structures. They have two cellular layers: the top epitheloid layer is made of ciliated "cover cells" flattened toward the outside of the organism, and the bottom layer is made up of cylinder cells that possess cilia used in locomotion, and gland cells that lack cilia. Between these layers is the fibre syncytium, a liquid-filled cavity strutted open by star-like fibres.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichoplax
I like these creatures because they are on the cusp of multicellularity: you can force them through a sieve that separates their cells which will then crawl around independently and try to reform the organism. You can dye two trichoplax different colors, force them through the sieve, and the cells will mix and form piebald organisms. So, they're like tribes of cells (IMHO.)