Placozoa
Placozoa
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扁虫纲
DOI:
10.1016/j.cub.2017.11.042
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发表时间:
2018
期刊:
影响因子:
9.2
通讯作者:
Rob DeSalle
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
B. Schierwater;Rob DeSalle
What are Placozoa? To us, Placozoa are the most unique animals one can think of (Figure 1). The bauplan of these always hungry creatures is by far the simplest of all animals—only some secondarily reduced parasites show a similarly simple morphology. Placozoa are organized in a sandwich-like body plan with a lower epithelium (facing the substrate) and an upper epithelium (facing the open water). Embedded within these two layers is a loose layer of so-called'fiber cells'. Placozoa lack any kind of apparent symmetry or body axis. They have no discrete organs, no clear nerve or muscle cells, not even any obvious extracellular matrix or a basal membrane. A mere six somatic cell types perform all functions and hold the animal together (even in heavy wave-break zones). Yet, placozoa can feed, digest, smell, see, move, grow and reproduce. They crawl as flat, tiny plates over hard substrates in most oceans.