Embryonic development in the acoelHofstenia miamia

Acoels are marine worms that belong to the phylum Xenacoelomorpha, a deep-diverging bilaterian lineage. This makes acoels an attractive system for studying the evolution of major bilaterian traits. Thus far, acoel development has not been described in detail at the morphological and transcriptomic levels in a species in which functional genetic studies are possible. We present a set of developmental landmarks for embryogenesis in the highly...