Shaochun Yuan

TL;DR: The first comprehensive genomic survey of the immune gene repertoire of the Amphioxus Branchiostoma floridae suggests that the amphioxus, a species without vertebrate-type adaptive immunity, holds extraordinary innate complexity and diversity.

TL;DR: Findings suggested that AmphiCTL1 acted as a direct microbial killing C-type lectin through binding microbial targets via interaction with peptidoglycan and glucan, which may be an evolutionarily primitive form of antimicrobial protein involved in lectin-mediated innate immunity.

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that ProtoRAG was recently active in the lancelet germline and that the l Lancelet RAG1/2-like proteins can mediate TIR-dependent transposon excision, host DNA recombination, transposition, and low-efficiency TIR rejoining using reaction mechanisms similar to those used by vertebrate RAGs.

TL;DR: The study of tetraspanin in a phylogenetic context helps to understand the evolution of intercellular interactions and it is suggested that t Petraspanins play important roles in the unicell-to-multicell transition.

TL;DR: It is suggested, through comparison with multiple lancelet genomes, that ancient vertebrates experienced high rates of protein evolution, genome rearrangement and domain shuffling and that these rates greatly slowed down after the divergence of jawed and jawless vertebrates.