Award: DEB-1542597

The following outcomes were generated as part of this project: Discovered the first instances of horizontal gene transfer in ctenophores. Provided insights into the reproductive ecology Mnemiopsis leidyi, which in turn led to a husbandry resource for researchers using these ctenophores. Showed that the Mnemiopsis leidyi regulate gamete production via conspecific communication. Identified genes involved in tentacle-specific cell types that were lost as a result of the evolutionary loss of tentacles in a lineage of ctenophores. Produced a reconstruction of the evolution of sexual modes throughout the history of animals. Published an update of the Mnemiopsis Genome Project Portal, which included new data that was generated as part of this project. Contributed to the genome annotation of a freshwater sponge (Ephydatia muelleri) and a sea urchin (Echinometra sp. EZ). Sequenced, assembled and annotated the genomes of the sea cucumber Holothuria glaberrima, and the tunicate Corella inflata. Created the concept of phylotocol for transparent practices during phylogenetic analyses. Showed that the commonly deployed six-state amino acid recoding strategy which has been applied to more than 90 published studies, produces suboptimal results. The project provided training opportunities for 1 Ph.D. student who graduated December 2020, 1 research scientist, 2 postdoctoral researchers, 1 technician, and 4 undergraduate researchers. We made other scientists aware of our cutting edge results at many scientific meetings and through invited lectures. These included meetings of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, Deep-Sea Biology Society, Smithsonian Biogenomics Conference, Society of Systematic Biologists, and the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science. We also hosted the first ever ctenophore conference, Ctenopalooza. Our research was featured in Science Magazine's News: https://www.science.org/content/article/gluey-tentacles-comb-jellies-may-have-revealed-when-nerve-cells-first-evolved We published a number of open source software programs and pipelines through our GitHub repository: https://github.com/josephryan Last Modified: 12/14/2021 Submitted by: Joseph F Ryan