Evolution of Allorecognition in the Tunicata

Allorecognition, the ability to distinguish self or kin from unrelated conspecifics, plays several important biological roles in invertebrate animals. Two of these roles include negotiating limited benthic space for colonial invertebrates, and inbreeding avoidance through self-incompatibility systems. Subphylum Tunicata (Phylum Chordata), the sister group to the vertebrates, is a promising group in which to study allorecognition. Coloniality has evolved many times independently in the tunicates, and the best known invertebrate self-incompatibility systems are in tunicates. Recent phylogenomic studies have coalesced around a phylogeny of the Tunicata as well as the Order Stolidobranchia within the Tunicata, providing a path forward for the study of allorecognition in this group.