Skip to main content
Uncategorized

The IRBio presents a new view on the evolution of cell adhesion mechanisms in living organisms

By 7 de June de 2010November 18th, 2020No Comments
< Back to news
 07.06.2010

The IRBio presents a new view on the evolution of cell adhesion mechanisms in living organisms

Integrins, molecules that facilitate cell adhesion and signaling, are not exclusive to animals and emerged in a unicellular context much earlier that was previously thought, according to the main conclusions of a scientific article published on the cover of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The research study is led by Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo, ICREA researcher at the Department of Genetics and at the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio), based at the Barcelona Science Park. Scientific teams from the University of Dalhousie and the University of Montreal (Canada), and from the University of California in Berkeley (United States), are also participating in this project. The experts believe that the conclusions of this research study reinforce the view of evolution as a "bricolage" process, both at a molecular and morphological level, in which genes and structures are recycled on several occasions and under very different contexts. In future studies the scientific team wishes to extend the research to other organisms in order to obtain a broader view of the origin of animals.

For more information