Spherical
A compact cell enclosed by a defined wall, often dominated by a large central vacuole.
ICHTHYOSPOREA / MAIN EXPERIMENTAL SYSTEM
Abeoforma
whisleri
One genome.
Many cellular identities.
Fluorescence microscopy · Multicellgenome Lab
PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY
A cell that
changes who it is.
Abeoforma whisleri moves through a striking repertoire of morphologies. Its non-linear life cycle offers a rare experimental system to ask how one genome generates distinct cellular identities—and how cells transition between them.
A LIFE CYCLE IN MOTION
Form is not fixed.
Cells grow, remodel and transition between states. The path is dynamic—and may change with context.
CELLULAR IDENTITIES
Many forms.
One living system.
Plasmodial
The cell reshapes, extends and reorganizes its contents without following a simple linear sequence.
Coenocytic
Nuclear divisions produce a multinucleate cell before cellularization releases a new generation.
Dispersal
Distinct motile forms may connect morphology to a specialized function and environmental response.
WHY IT MATTERS
How did cells learn
to change identity?
Animals build bodies by generating specialized cell types from the same genome. Abeoforma lets us investigate a possible evolutionary foundation of that capacity: regulated transitions between phenotypically distinct states in a unicellular relative of animals.
DECODING CELL-STATE TRANSITIONS
From visible form
to regulatory logic.
Morphology
Define the cellular states and the structures that distinguish them.
Transitions
Reconstruct how cells move between states across a non-linear life cycle.
Environment
Test how external conditions influence the appearance of particular phenotypes.
Gene regulation
Connect each cellular identity to its underlying transcriptional and regulatory programme.
AN EMERGING MODEL
From a mussel gut
to an experimental system.
First isolated from an invertebrate digestive tract, Abeoforma now combines cultivation, a reference genome, live imaging and transient transfection.
- 01Living culture
- 02Reference genome
- 03Life-cycle imaging
- 04Transient transfection
FOUNDATIONAL WORK
Isolation.
Genome.
Experiment.
2011
Discovering Abeoforma
Marshall and Berbee isolated and formally described a living culture from an invertebrate digestive tract, revealing an undescribed ichthyosporean clade.
↗2015Resolving its evolutionary position
Broad phylogenomics placed Abeoforma within Ichthyosporea and clarified the deep relationships among the closest relatives of animals.
↗2017Sequencing the genome
The Abeoforma genome joined a comparative platform for reconstructing molecular innovation before animal multicellularity.
↗2020Introducing genes into the cell
A community-wide Nature Methods effort established transient transformation and fluorescent expression in Abeoforma.
↗GENOME & RESOURCES
Explore the system.
CONTINUE EXPLORING
