Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo

Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC - IBE)

Life & Medical Sciences

Iñaki Ruiz Trillo works at the Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC-UPF) in Barcelona. His educational background includes a BS in Biology from the University of Barcelona. He earned a PhD in Biology from the University of Barcelona. During his PhD he worked in improving the metazoan phylogenetic tree. Using molecular tools, he showed that acoel flatworms are not members of the Platyhelminthes but rather an independent lineage. He completed a post-doctoral stage at the Dalhousie University (Canada) working on eukaryotic evolution using EST data. His current research interests include the study of the molecular mechanisms involved in the origin of multicellular animals, the analysis of genomes of different protists, the study of higher phylogenetic relationships of eukaryotes, and the understanding of the genetic repertoire of the last eukaryotic common ancestor.


Research interests

The lab is interested in understanding how multicellular animals emerged from their unicellular ancestors. To this aim we perform comparative genomic analyses between multicellular animals and their closest unicellular relatives to unravel the nature of the unicellular ancestor that gave rise to animals. We are also currently developing molecular techniques and transgenesis tools in the closest unicellular relatives to Metazoa. Finally, we are also interested in unravelling the hidden diversity among opisthokonts lineages using metabarcoding data.

Selected publications

– Arroyo AS, Lopez-Escardo D, de Vargas C & Ruiz-Trillo I 2016, ‘Hidden diversity of Acoelomorpha revealed through metabarcoding’, Biology Letters, 12, 9, 20160674.

– Sebe-Pedros A, Pena MI, Capella-Gutierrez S, Anto M, Gabaldon T, Ruiz-Trillo I & Sabido E 2016, ‘High-Throughput Proteomics Reveals the Unicellular Roots of Animal Phosphosignaling and Cell Differentiation’, Developmental Cell, 39, 2, 186 – 197.

– Esquerdo M, Grau-Bové X, Garanto A, Toulis V, Garcia-Monclús S, Millo E, López-Iniesta MJ, Abad-Morales V, Ruiz-Trillo I & Marfany G 2016, ‘Expression atlas of the deubiquitinating enzymes in the adult mouse retina, their evolutionary diversification and phenotypic roles‘, Plos One 11(3): e0150364.

– Ruiz-Trillo I & Paps J 2016, ‘Acoelomorpha: earliest-branching bilaterians or deuterostomes?’, Organisms Diversity and Evolution 16, 2, 391 – 399.

– Gold DA, Grabenstatter J, de Mendoza A, Riesgo A, Ruiz-Trillo I & Summons RE 2016, ‘Sterol and genomic analyses validate the sponge biomarker hypothesis’, Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences Of The United States Of America, 113, 10, 2684 – 2689.

– Sebe-Pedros A, Ballare C, Parra-Acero H, Chiva C, Tena JJ, Sabido E, Gomez-Skarmeta JL, Di Croce L & Ruiz-Trillo I 2016, ‘The Dynamic Regulatory Genome of Capsaspora and the Origin of Animal Multicellularity’, Cell, 165, 5, 1224 – 1237.

– O’Malley MA, Wideman JG & Ruiz-Trillo I 2016, ‘Losing Complexity: The Role of Simplification in Macroevolution’, Trends In Ecology & Evolution, 31, 8, 608 – 621.

– Najle SR, Molina MC, Ruiz-Trillo I & Uttaro AD 2016, ‘Sterol metabolism in the filasterean Capsaspora owczarzaki has features that resemble both fungi and animals’, Open Biology, 6, 7, 160029.