"Sycon Transcriptom Data, 2013" is part of the project "Regulatory RNA and the Origin of Multicellularity". One of the most important evolutionary transitions in the history of life was the evolution of multicellular animals and fungi from unicellular eukaryotes. Despite this transition has been one of the most complex and profound among eukaryotes, the underlying genetic changes of this giant leap in evolution are very much unclear. In contrast to earlier works, which focused on changes of protein coding genes, we are in the proposed project investigating alteration of gene regulation by means of small regulatory RNAs. In recent years we have seen an increased awareness of noncoding RNA in animals and fungi. These function as regulators of gene expression, which have been found to be important for embryonic stem cell differentiation, cell proliferation, apoptosis and metabolic regulation. Hence, small regulatory RNA is vital for the development of complex body plans. A few non-coding RNAs have also been identified in premetazoan and prefungal eukaryotes, but as only a few species have so far been investigated, it is still a big gap in our knowledge of the processes underlining the evolution of animal and fungal multicellularity. This project aims at investigating the role of regulatory RNA in the evolution of multicellularity by comparing the genomes and RNA repertoire in unicellular relatives of animals and fungi (i.e. Choanozoa). As these two groups evolved multicellularity independently from different unicellular ancestors, these comparisons will reveal lineage specific changes such as gene losses, expansions, lateral gene transfers and functional changes. The requested project will apply a combination of bioinformatic and RNA sequencing approaches to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the diversity and evolution of regulatory RNA elements within Choanozoa and thereby also its contribution to the evolution of multicellularity. The data in this project are used in published articles. The data are available through databases
