Binary fission
Most cells divide into two daughters. Yet nuclear division and cytokinesis do not happen at the same time.
CORALLOCHYTREA / MAIN EXPERIMENTAL SYSTEM
Corallochytrium
limacisporum
One cultured species.
An entire holozoan lineage.
Scanning electron microscopy · Multicellgenome Lab
CELL DIVISION, RECONSIDERED
One cell.
Two ways to divide.
As the only cultured representative of Corallochytrea, Corallochytrium limacisporum gives us experimental access to an entire distinct lineage among the closest unicellular relatives of animals. It can divide by binary fission—or postpone cytokinesis and enter a multinucleate state.
A NON-LINEAR LIFE CYCLE
One life cycle.
Two developmental paths.
Most cells follow binary fission. A minority instead continues nuclear division, producing coenocytes with several nuclei. The two developmental routes coexist in the same species.
Cell boundaries in cyan · nuclei in yellowTHE DIVISION REPERTOIRE
One organism.
Many cellular faces.
A binucleate pause
Cells spend much of their cycle with two nuclei: one cell, temporally suspended between nuclear and cellular division.
Coenocytic growth
A small fraction continues nuclear division without cytokinesis, producing several nuclei inside one cytoplasm.
WHY IT MATTERS
Could flexible division
have shaped animal origins?
Corallochytrium belongs to one of the earliest-branching lineages among the unicellular relatives of animals. Its unusual coupling—and uncoupling—of mitosis and cytokinesis lets us test how ancient cells controlled nuclear number, cell boundaries and developmental transitions.
FROM ORGANISM TO MODEL
Observe it.
Transform it.
Edit it.
Culture
A tractable marine protist maintained through a reproducible life cycle.
Live imaging
Cell boundaries, nuclei and division paths can be followed through time.
Stable transfection
Fluorescent reporters made its hidden cell biology experimentally visible.
CRISPR–Cas9
Gene inactivation and precise point mutations now make causal tests possible.
FOUNDATIONAL WORK
From evolutionary position
to genome editing.
2015
Placing Corallochytrium on the tree
Taxon-rich phylogenomics recovered Corallochytrium as the sister lineage to Ichthyosporea, together forming Teretosporea.
↗2017A genome for animal-origins comparisons
Its genome helped reconstruct how the molecular toolkit changed along the animal stem lineage.
↗2021Two routes through cell division
Stable transfection exposed binary fission, coenocytic growth and the temporal separation of mitosis from cytokinesis.
↗2025Editing the genome with CRISPR–Cas9
Gene inactivation, point mutation and co-editing established Corallochytrium as a genetically tractable, haploid model.
↗GENOME & RESOURCES
Explore the system.
CONTINUE EXPLORING
