![]() ![]() "We recently sequenced the genome of both the Japanese flounder ( Paralichthys olivaceus) and its distant relative, the tongue sole ( Cynoglossus semilaevis)," Manfred Schartl explains. The scientists have published their findings in the journal Nature Genetics. ![]() The team was led by biochemist Manfred Schartl, Head of the Department for Physiological Chemistry at the University of Würzburg's Biocenter, with his former Würzburg student and co-worker Songlin Chen from the Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute in China. An international team of researchers has now unlocked the decisive mechanisms driving the metamorphosis. Even Darwin was at a loss to explain the "remarkable peculiarity" of flatfish anatomy. The puzzle of how these changes could occur in the course of evolution has been intriguing scientists for a long time. These transformations require the flatfish do undergo radical change, both in physiology and behavior. They start out their life fully symmetrical, like any other fish, but undergo a spectacular metamorphosis where the symmetric larva is transformed into an asymmetric juvenile whose eyes end up on one side of the head.Īs they relocate from open water to live and feed on the seabed, a second change occurs: The flounder's downward-facing side loses its skin pigment. Flatfish are some of the most unusual vertebrate animals on our planet.
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