Bryozoan polymorphic zooids

Bryozoans grow by budding new physiologically connected colony members (zooids) from a metamorphosed larva. Zooids are specialized to serve different tasks within the colony such as feeding, reproduction, defense, and colony attachment. This study aims to characterize the differential gene expression between polymorphic zooids of lab-cultured Bugulina stolonifera colonies by sequencing high-quality mRNA from different polymorphic zooid typess at different developmental stages.