Serpulidae Rafinesque, 1815 é uma das famílias de poliquetas mais facilmente reconhecíveis, por viverem em tubos calcários e possuírem o corpo dividido em três regiões bem definidas, coroa branquial, tórax e abdômen, geralmente com um opérculo, que fecha a abertura do tubo quando a coroa branquial é retraída, e uma membrana torácica, que é um prolongamento do colar, estendendo-se ao longo do tórax dorsalmente por número variável de setígeros. São muito abundantes no litoral brasileiro e importantes na comunidade incrustante, que reveste pedras, algas e demais estruturas que forneçam o substrato adequado para a instalação destes animais, sendo um dos principais grupos de poliquetas em estudos de bioinvasão. Ao longo da história taxonômica da família, as relações filogenéticas e a classificação sistemática do grupo passaram por diversas alterações e atualmente, com base em estudos morfológicos e moleculares, são considerados como grupo irmão de Fabriciidae Rioja, 1923, e o clado, grupo-irmão de Sabellidae Latreille, 1825. O presente trabalho é um dos primeiros estudos de cunho taxonômico tratando especificamente da Família Serpulidae ao longo da costa brasileira, com o objetivo de identificar e descrever as espécies destes animais encontradas entre as regiões Sul-Nordeste do país; foram analisados 443 indivíduos, pertencentes a dez gêneros e 16 espécies, uma das quais é nova ocorrência para o Brasil e outra é nova para a ciência / Serpulidae Rafinesque, 1815 is one of the most easily recognizable families of polychaetes, because these animals live in calcareous tubes and have the body divided into three well-defined regions, the branchial crown, thorax and abdomen, usually with an operculum, which closes the mouth of the tube when the branchial crown is retracted, and a thoracic membrane, which is an extension of the collar dorsally, extending along the thorax for a variable number of chaetigers. Serpulids are very abundant in Brazil and important in the fouling community, coating rocks, algae and other structures which provide the appropriate substrate for the installation of these animals, being one of the major groups of polychaetes in bioinvasion studies. Our understanding on the phylogenetic relationships within Serpulidae and between the family and the closely related Fabriciidae Rioja, 1923 and Sabellidae Latreille, 1825 has changed through time; currently, based on both morphological and molecular studies, serpulids are regarded as the sister group of Fabriciidae and this clade is sister to Sabellidae. The present study is one of the first taxonomic studies dealing specifically with the Family Serpulidae along the Brazilian coast, aiming to identify and describe the species found between the southern and northeastern regions; 443 specimens were analyzed, belonging to ten genera and 16 species, of which one species is firstly reported for Brazilian waters and another is new to science

Serpulidae Rafinesque, 1815 é uma das famílias de poliquetas mais facilmente reconhecíveis, por viverem em tubos calcários e possuírem o corpo dividido em três regiões bem definidas, coroa branquial, tórax e abdômen, geralmente com um opérculo, que fecha a abertura do tubo quando a coroa branquial é retraída, e uma membrana torácica, que é um prolongamento do colar, estendendo-se ao longo do tórax dorsalmente por número variável de setígeros. São muito abundantes no litoral brasileiro e importantes na comunidade incrustante, que reveste pedras, algas e demais estruturas que forneçam o substrato adequado para a instalação destes animais, sendo um dos principais grupos de poliquetas em estudos de bioinvasão. Ao longo da história taxonômica da família, as relações filogenéticas e a classificação sistemática do grupo passaram por diversas alterações e atualmente, com base em estudos morfológicos e moleculares, são considerados como grupo irmão de Fabriciidae Rioja, 1923, e o clado, grupo-irmão de Sabellidae Latreille, 1825. O presente trabalho é um dos primeiros estudos de cunho taxonômico tratando especificamente da Família Serpulidae ao longo da costa brasileira, com o objetivo de identificar e descrever as espécies destes animais encontradas entre as regiões Sul-Nordeste do país; foram analisados 443 indivíduos, pertencentes a dez gêneros e 16 espécies, uma das quais é nova ocorrência para o Brasil e outra é nova para a ciência / Serpulidae Rafinesque, 1815 is one of the most easily recognizable families of polychaetes, because these animals live in calcareous tubes and have the body divided into three well-defined regions, the branchial crown, thorax and abdomen, usually with an operculum, which closes the mouth of the tube when the branchial crown is retracted, and a thoracic membrane, which is an extension of the collar dorsally, extending along the thorax for a variable number of chaetigers. Serpulids are very abundant in Brazil and important in the fouling community, coating rocks, algae and other structures which provide the appropriate substrate for the installation of these animals, being one of the major groups of polychaetes in bioinvasion studies. Our understanding on the phylogenetic relationships within Serpulidae and between the family and the closely related Fabriciidae Rioja, 1923 and Sabellidae Latreille, 1825 has changed through time; currently, based on both morphological and molecular studies, serpulids are regarded as the sister group of Fabriciidae and this clade is sister to Sabellidae. The present study is one of the first taxonomic studies dealing specifically with the Family Serpulidae along the Brazilian coast, aiming to identify and describe the species found between the southern and northeastern regions; 443 specimens were analyzed, belonging to ten genera and 16 species, of which one species is firstly reported for Brazilian waters and another is new to science

Spirobranchus sisanteus is a tropical serpulid (Annelida, Polychaeta, Serpulidae, sub-family Serpulines) (Grasse, 1959), of common occurrence throughout the British West Indies. The species has been reported from the Caribbean by Ehlers (1887) and Hullin (1923) and recently vas collected in Jamaica and Barbados by Marsden and desoribed by her in some detail (Marsden, 1900). The author became interested in two aspects of Spirobranchus giganteus: neurosecretion, and the eoological diversity shown by the Barbados population of the serpulid. Neurosecretion in the invertebrates is a relatively new field of research, of which polychaete neurosecretory investigation is a thriving branch. However, there was found in the literature only one reference to neurosecretion in serpulids. Studies to determine whether Spirobranohus sisanteus exhibits neurosecretory activity therefore held great interest for the author. / fr

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Regeneration, the replacement of lost or damaged body parts, and biomineralisation, the biologically controlled formation of minerals, are important and widespread abilities in the animal kingdom. Both phenomena have a complex evolutionary history; thus their study benefits from investigations in diverse animals. Spirobranchus (formerly Pomatoceros) lamarcki is a small tube-dwelling polychaete worm of the serpulid family. Serpulids have evolved a novel head appendage, the operculum, which functions as a defensive tube plug and regenerates readily when lost. In S. lamarcki, the end of the operculum is reinforced by a calcareous plate; thus, the operculum is a good system in which to study both regeneration and biomineralisation. This thesis explores several aspects of these important processes in the adult operculum. First, a time course of normal regeneration is established. Next, cell proliferation patterns are described, suggesting a combination of proliferation-dependent and proliferation-independent elements in opercular regeneration. The formation of the calcareous opercular plate is examined using both microscopic observations of whole opercular plates and X-ray diffraction analysis of isolated plate mineral, revealing a large shift in mineralogy over the course of regeneration. Histochemical study of alkaline phosphatase enzyme activity indicates the importance of these enzymes in the operculum, although their precise functions are as yet unclear. Finally, a preliminary survey of three opercular transcriptomic datasets is presented, with a broad sampling of gene families with regeneration- or biomineralisation-related roles in other animals. The opercular transcriptome constitutes the first biomineralisation transcriptome from any annelid, and one of the first transcriptomic datasets related to annelid regeneration. Many of the candidate genes examined here display interesting behaviour and suggest targets for further investigation. The work presented here establishes the S. lamarcki operculum as a promising model system in the field of evolutionary developmental biology.