“…Genomic analyses place Ctenophora near the base of the Metazoa, thus making them a critical group to study evolution of metazoan cell types (Sebe-Pedroś et al, 2018;Li et al, 2021;Schultz et al, 2023). Previous studies have usually relied upon microscopybased analyses to characterize distinct ctenophore cell types including true muscle cells, nerve cells, various digestive cells, stellate phagocytic amoebocytes, and ctenophore-specific cell types including tentacular colloblasts and ctene-row ciliary cells (combrows) (Hernandez-Nicaise, 1991;Jager et al, 2010;Dayraud et al, 2012;Moroz et al, 2014;Presnell et al, 2016;Babonis et al, 2018;Traylor-Knowles et al, 2019;Jokura et al, 2022;Burkhardt et al, 2023). Additionally, optimization of methodologies that build on cell culture techniques (Presnell et al, 2016;Vandepas et al, 2017;Dieter et al, 2022) are required to study functional characteristics and traits associated with specific cell types.…”