Studies of the vertebrate origin

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Vertebrates are one of the three sub-phyletic groups of the phylum Chordata, together with cephalochordates and urochordates. Previously we decoded the genome of a urochordate, Ciona intestinalis. In the present study we succeeded to decode the genome of a cephalochordate, Brachiostoma floridae. Comparative analyses of the three genomes gave us an insight into the evolutionary scenario of chordates and the origin of vertebrates; namely, cephalochordates are most basal, from which vertebrates evolved rather directly.