Pavel Vopalensky

TL;DR: The results indicate that the amphioxus genome is elemental to an understanding of the biology and evolution of nonchordate deuterostomes, invertebrate chordates, and vertebrates.

TL;DR: It is shown that camera-type eyes of the cubozoan jellyfish, Tripedalia cystophora, use genetic building blocks typical of vertebrate eyes, namely, a ciliary phototransduction cascade and melanogenic pathway.

TL;DR: The cell types of the amphioxus frontal eye molecularly are characterized and it is shown that the cells of the frontal eye specifically coexpress a combination of transcription factors and opsins typical of the vertebrate eye photoreceptors and an inhibitory Gi-type alpha subunit of the G protein, indicating an off-responding phototransductory cascade.

TL;DR: Analysis of particular genetic and biochemical components shows that many evolutionary processes have participated in eye evolution, and the direct regulation of essential photoreceptor genes by these factors suggests that this regulatory relationship might have been already established in the ancestral Photoreceptor cell.

TL;DR: This work finds that melatonin is produced in brain photoreceptors with a vertebrate-type opsin-based phototransduction cascade and a light-entrained clock and proposes thatMelatonin signaling plays a role in the circadian control of ciliary swimming to adjust the vertical position of zooplankton in response to ambient light.