Radical modification of the A–P axis and the evolution of asexual reproduction in Convolutriloba acoels

Abstract

Acoel worms in the genus Convolutriloba are remarkable in that closely related, morphologically very similar species reproduce asexually by dramatically different processes. Transverse fission, longitudinal fission, and reversed-polarity budding all occur within this genus, indicating an unparalleled ability to alter the A-P axis. Convolutriloba thus offers an exceptional opportunity to investigate the development and evolution of asexual reproduction. Molecular phylogenetic analysis indicates that reversed-polarity budding is ancestral and fission is derived for the genus. A clear difference between budding and fission is indicated by the development of the nervous system, which forms de novo during budding, but regenerates largely by extensions of remaining components of the nervous system during both types of fission. Despite this and other differences between fission and budding, localized muscle disorganization coupled with behaviorally mediated tearing are characteristic of both transverse fission and reversed-polarity budding (though not longitudinal fission), suggesting that a homologous tissue-separation mechanism underlies these two outwardly quite different asexual reproductive modes. We suggest that the ability to split the posterior axis field into two adjacent fields, manifested during both reversed-polarity budding and longitudinal fission, may have been a driving force behind the diversification of asexual reproductive mode in this group.