Nucella lapillus (Dog whelk), Lumbricus and Amynthas spps. (Earthworms), Asterias rubens (Common starish) Halichondria panacea (Breadcrumb sponge), Actinia equina (beadlet anemone), Fucus serratus (Serrated wrack) Raw sequence reads. Nucella lapillus (Dog whelk), Lumbricus and Amynthas spps. (Earthworms), Asterias rubens (Common starish) Halichondria panacea (Breadcrumb sponge), Actinia equina (beadlet anemone), Fucus serratus (Serrated wrack)

Using a metagenomics approach we sought to uncover the small RNA response to viruses and TEs in anciently divergent animals, and a brown alga. Using RNA-seq data, we thus sought to reveal the phylogenetic distribution of defensive RNAi responses in Metaoza, and in a eukaryote with an independent evolutionary origin of multicellularity. Our target taxa were: Nucella lapillus (Dog whelk), Lumbricus and Amynthas spps. (Earthworms), Asterias rubens (Common starish) Halichondria panacea (Breadcrumb sponge), Actinia equina (beadlet anemone), and Fucus serratus (Serrated wrack).