My research focuses on understanding the evolutionary origins of complex traits within the vertebrate head. Such complex traits include an elaborated ventricular brain, neural crest and placodal derivatives, and the development of craniofacial structures. Because of their absence outside the vertebrate subphylum, they are generally regarded as vertebrate innovations, thus closely linked to the invertebrate-vertebrate transition. My main objective is to decipher the molecular changes that underlie the emergence of such morphological innovations, which likely facilitated the evolution and radiation of vertebrates on earth. To do this, I use the pre-vertebrate amphioxus (cephalochordate) as a model system, since it is currently regarded as the best extant proxy to the ancestral chordate that gave rise to all vertebrates

Benito-Gutiérrez E, Weber H, Bryant DV, Arendt D (2013) Methods for generating year-round access to amphioxus in the laboratory. PLoS One. 8:e71599. Vopalensky P, Pergner J, Liegertova M, Benito-Gutiérrez E, Arendt D, Kozmik Z (2012) Molecular analysis of the amphioxus frontal eye unravels the evolutionary origin of the retina and pigment cells of the vertebrate eye. PNAS U S A. 109:15383-8. Benito-Gutiérrez E & Arendt D (2009) CNS evolution: new insight from the mud. Curr Biol. 19:R640-2. Benito-Gutiérrez E (2006) A gene catalogue of the amphioxus nervous system. Int J Biol Sci. 2:149-60. Benito-Gutiérrez E, Nake C, Llovera M, Comella JX & Garcia-Fernandez J (2005) The single AmphiTrk receptor highlights increased complexity of neurotrophin signalling in vertebrates and suggests an early role in developing sensory neuroepidermal cells. Development. 132:2191-202. Benito-Gutiérrez E, Illas M, Comella JX & Garcia-Fernandez J (2005) Outlining the nascent nervous system of Branchiostoma floridae (amphioxus) by the pan-neural marker AmphiElav. Brain Res Bull. 66:518-21.