Evodevo最新文献

{"title":"Histone deacetylases regulate organ-specific growth in a horned beetle","authors":"Yonggang Hu, Jordan R. Crabtree, Anna L. M. Macagno, Armin P. Moczek","doi":"10.1186/s13227-024-00223-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13227-024-00223-5","url":null,"abstract":"Nutrient availability is among the most widespread means by which environmental variability affects developmental outcomes. Because almost all cells within an individual organism share the same genome, structure-specific growth responses must result from changes in gene regulation. Earlier work suggested that histone deacetylases (HDACs) may serve as epigenetic regulators linking nutritional conditions to trait-specific development. Here we expand on this work by assessing the function of diverse HDACs in the structure-specific growth of both sex-shared and sex-specific traits including evolutionarily novel structures in the horned dung beetle Onthophagus taurus. We identified five HDAC members whose downregulation yielded highly variable mortality depending on which HDAC member was targeted. We then show that HDAC1, 3, and 4 operate in both a gene- and trait-specific manner in the regulation of nutrition-responsiveness of appendage size and shape. Specifically, HDAC 1, 3, or 4 knockdown diminished wing size similarly while leg development was differentially affected by RNAi targeting HDAC3 and HDAC4. In addition, depletion of HDAC3 transcript resulted in a more rounded shape of genitalia at the pupal stage and decreased the length of adult aedeagus across all body sizes. Most importantly, we find that HDAC3 and HDAC4 pattern the morphology and regulate the scaling of evolutionarily novel head and thoracic horns as a function of nutritional variation. Collectively, our results suggest that both functional overlap and division of labor among HDAC members contribute to morphological diversification of both conventional and recently evolved appendages. More generally, our work raises the possibility that HDAC-mediated scaling relationships and their evolution may underpin morphological diversification within and across insect species broadly.","PeriodicalId":49076,"journal":{"name":"Evodevo","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2024-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140565168","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sea cucumbers: an emerging system in evo-devo.","authors":"Margherita Perillo, Rosa Maria Sepe, Periklis Paganos, Alfonso Toscano, Rossella Annunziata","doi":"10.1186/s13227-023-00220-0","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s13227-023-00220-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>A challenge for evolutionary developmental (evo-devo) biology is to expand the breadth of research organisms used to investigate how animal diversity has evolved through changes in embryonic development. New experimental systems should couple a relevant phylogenetic position with available molecular tools and genomic resources. As a phylum of the sister group to chordates, echinoderms extensively contributed to our knowledge of embryonic patterning, organ development and cell-type evolution. Echinoderms display a variety of larval forms with diverse shapes, making them a suitable group to compare the evolution of embryonic developmental strategies. However, because of the laboratory accessibility and the already available techniques, most studies focus on sea urchins and sea stars mainly. As a comparative approach, the field would benefit from including information on other members of this group, like the sea cucumbers (holothuroids), for which little is known on the molecular basis of their development. Here, we review the spawning and culture methods, the available morphological and molecular information, and the current state of genomic and transcriptomic resources on sea cucumbers. With the goal of making this system accessible to the broader community, we discuss how sea cucumber embryos and larvae can be a powerful system to address the open questions in evo-devo, including understanding the origins of bilaterian structures.</p>","PeriodicalId":49076,"journal":{"name":"Evodevo","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2024-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10874539/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139898219","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Development of the hyolaryngeal architecture in horseshoe bats: insights into the evolution of the pulse generation for laryngeal echolocation.","authors":"Taro Nojiri, Masaki Takechi, Toshiko Furutera, Nicolas L M Brualla, Sachiko Iseki, Dai Fukui, Vuong Tan Tu, Fumiya Meguro, Daisuke Koyabu","doi":"10.1186/s13227-024-00221-7","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s13227-024-00221-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The hyolaryngeal apparatus generates biosonar pulses in the laryngeally echolocating bats. The cartilage and muscles comprising the hyolarynx of laryngeally echolocating bats are morphologically modified compared to those of non-bat mammals, as represented by the hypertrophied intrinsic laryngeal muscle. Despite its crucial contribution to laryngeal echolocation, how the development of the hyolarynx in bats differs from that of other mammals is poorly documented. The genus Rhinolophus is one of the most sophisticated laryngeal echolocators, with the highest pulse frequency in bats. The present study provides the first detailed description of the three-dimensional anatomy and development of the skeleton, cartilage, muscle, and innervation patterns of the hyolaryngeal apparatus in two species of rhinolophid bats using micro-computed tomography images and serial tissue sections and compares them with those of laboratory mice. Furthermore, we measured the peak frequency of the echolocation pulse in active juvenile and adult individuals to correspond to echolocation pulses with hyolaryngeal morphology at each postnatal stage.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We found that the sagittal crests of the cricoid cartilage separated the dorsal cricoarytenoid muscle in horseshoe bats, indicating that this unique morphology may be required to reinforce the repeated closure movement of the glottis during biosonar pulse emission. We also found that the cricothyroid muscle is ventrally hypertrophied throughout ontogeny, and that the cranial laryngeal nerve has a novel branch supplying the hypertrophied region of this muscle. Our bioacoustic analyses revealed that the peak frequency shows negative allometry against skull growth, and that the volumetric growth of all laryngeal cartilages is correlated with the pulse peak frequency.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The unique patterns of muscle and innervation revealed in this study appear to have been obtained concomitantly with the acquisition of tracheal chambers in rhinolophids and hipposiderids, improving sound intensity during laryngeal echolocation. In addition, significant protrusion of the sagittal crest of the cricoid cartilage and the separated dorsal cricoarytenoid muscle may contribute to the sophisticated biosonar in this laryngeally echolocating lineage. Furthermore, our bioacoustic data suggested that the mineralization of these cartilages underpins the ontogeny of echolocation pulse generation. The results of the present study provide crucial insights into how the anatomy and development of the hyolaryngeal apparatus shape the acoustic diversity in bats.</p>","PeriodicalId":49076,"journal":{"name":"Evodevo","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2024-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10851524/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139703865","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Cambrian fossil Pikaia, and the origin of chordate somites","authors":"Thurston Lacalli","doi":"10.1186/s13227-024-00222-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13227-024-00222-6","url":null,"abstract":"The Middle Cambrian fossil Pikaia has a regular series of vertical bands that, assuming chordate affinities, can be interpreted as septa positioned between serial myotomes. Whether Pikaia has a notochord and nerve cord is less certain, as the dorsal organ, which has no obvious counterpart in living chordates, is the only clearly defined axial structure extending the length of the body. Without a notochord to serve as a reference point, the location of the nerve cord is then conjectural, which begs the question of how a dorsal neural center devoted to somite innervation would first have arisen from a more diffuse ancestral plexus of intraepithelial nerves. This question is examined using hemichordates as a reference point, first for the information they provide on the organization of the ancestral deuterostome nervous system, and second, extending the analysis of E. E. Ruppert, to explain why neural infoldings like the enteropneust collar cord would first have evolved. Both implicate the medial surface of the anterior-most part of the metacoel as the likely site for the evolution of the first somites. The analysis highlights the importance of the somatobranchial condition in chordates, meaning the linkage between the anterior trunk, hox1 expression, and the beginning of the gill series and somites. This feature is arguably a valid criterion by which to assess extinct taxa from the Cambrian that resemble chordates (e.g., vetulicolians and yunnanozoans), but may be unrelated to them. In a more speculative vein, the nature of the dorsal organ is discussed, including the possibility that it is an expanded neural tube combining neural and support functions in one structure.","PeriodicalId":49076,"journal":{"name":"Evodevo","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2024-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139656979","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Genome-wide identification and spatiotemporal expression analysis of cadherin superfamily members in echinoderms","authors":"Macie M. Chess, William Douglas, Josiah Saunders, Charles A. Ettensohn","doi":"10.1186/s13227-023-00219-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13227-023-00219-7","url":null,"abstract":"Cadherins are calcium-dependent transmembrane cell–cell adhesion proteins that are essential for metazoan development. They consist of three subfamilies: classical cadherins, which bind catenin, protocadherins, which contain 6–7 calcium-binding repeat domains, and atypical cadherins. Their functions include forming adherens junctions, establishing planar cell polarity (PCP), and regulating cell shape, proliferation, and migration. Because they are basal deuterostomes, echinoderms provide important insights into bilaterian evolution, but their only well-characterized cadherin is G-cadherin, a classical cadherin that is expressed by many embryonic epithelia. We aimed to better characterize echinoderm cadherins by conducting phylogenetic analyses and examining the spatiotemporal expression patterns of cadherin-encoding genes during Strongylocentrotus purpuratus development. Our phylogenetic analyses conducted on two echinoid, three asteroid, and one crinoid species identified ten echinoderm cadherins, including one deuterostome-specific ortholog, cadherin-23, and an echinoderm-specific atypical cadherin that possibly arose in an echinoid-asteroid ancestor. Catenin-binding domains in dachsous-2 orthologs were found to be a deuterostome-specific innovation that was selectively lost in mouse, while those in Fat4 orthologs appeared to be Ambulacraria-specific and were selectively lost in non-crinoid echinoderms. The identified suite of echinoderm cadherins lacks vertebrate-specific innovations but contains two proteins that are present in protostomes and absent from mouse. The spatiotemporal expression patterns of four embryonically expressed cadherins (fat atypical cadherins 1 and 4, dachsous-2, and protocadherin-9) were dynamic and mirrored the expression pattern of Frizzled 5/8, a non-canonical Wnt PCP pathway receptor protein essential for archenteron morphogenesis. The echinoderm cadherin toolkit is more similar to that of an ancient bilaterian predating protostomes and deuterostomes than it is to the suite of cadherins found in extant vertebrates. However, it also appears that deuterostomes underwent several cadherin-related innovations. Based on their similar spatiotemporal expression patterns and orthologous relationships to PCP-related and tumor-suppressing proteins, we hypothesize that sea urchin cadherins may play a role in regulating the shape and growth of embryonic epithelia and organs. Future experiments will examine cadherin expression in non-echinoid echinoderms and explore the functions of cadherins during echinoderm development.","PeriodicalId":49076,"journal":{"name":"Evodevo","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138825884","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Nematostella vectensis exemplifies the exceptional expansion and diversity of opsins in the eyeless Hexacorallia.","authors":"Kyle J McCulloch, Leslie S Babonis, Alicia Liu, Christina M Daly, Mark Q Martindale, Kristen M Koenig","doi":"10.1186/s13227-023-00218-8","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s13227-023-00218-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Opsins are the primary proteins responsible for light detection in animals. Cnidarians (jellyfish, sea anemones, corals) have diverse visual systems that have evolved in parallel with bilaterians (squid, flies, fish) for hundreds of millions of years. Medusozoans (e.g., jellyfish, hydroids) have evolved eyes multiple times, each time independently incorporating distinct opsin orthologs. Anthozoans (e.g., corals, sea anemones,) have diverse light-mediated behaviors and, despite being eyeless, exhibit more extensive opsin duplications than medusozoans. To better understand the evolution of photosensitivity in animals without eyes, we increased anthozoan representation in the phylogeny of animal opsins and investigated the large but poorly characterized opsin family in the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We analyzed genomic and transcriptomic data from 16 species of cnidarians to generate a large opsin phylogeny (708 sequences) with the largest sampling of anthozoan sequences to date. We identified 29 opsins from N. vectensis (NvOpsins) with high confidence, using transcriptomic and genomic datasets. We found that lineage-specific opsin duplications are common across Cnidaria, with anthozoan lineages exhibiting among the highest numbers of opsins in animals. To establish putative photosensory function of NvOpsins, we identified canonically conserved protein domains and amino acid sequences essential for opsin function in other animal species. We show high sequence diversity among NvOpsins at sites important for photoreception and transduction, suggesting potentially diverse functions. We further examined the spatiotemporal expression of NvOpsins and found both dynamic expression of opsins during embryonic development and sexually dimorphic opsin expression in adults.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>These data show that lineage-specific duplication and divergence has led to expansive diversity of opsins in eyeless cnidarians, suggesting opsins from these animals may exhibit novel biochemical functions. The variable expression patterns of opsins in N. vectensis suggest opsin gene duplications allowed for a radiation of unique sensory cell types with tissue- and stage-specific functions. This diffuse network of distinct sensory cell types could be an adaptive solution for varied sensory tasks experienced in distinct life history stages in Anthozoans.</p>","PeriodicalId":49076,"journal":{"name":"Evodevo","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2023-09-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10512536/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41160305","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cnidofest 2022: hot topics in cnidarian research.","authors":"James M Gahan, Paulyn Cartwright, Matthew L Nicotra, Christine E Schnitzler, Patrick R H Steinmetz, Celina E Juliano","doi":"10.1186/s13227-023-00217-9","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s13227-023-00217-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The second annual Cnidarian Model Systems Meeting, aka \"Cnidofest\", took place in Davis, California from 7 to 10th of September, 2022. The meeting brought together scientists using cnidarians to study molecular and cellular biology, development and regeneration, evo-devo, neurobiology, symbiosis, physiology, and comparative genomics. The diversity of topics and species represented in presentations highlighted the importance and versatility of cnidarians in addressing a wide variety of biological questions. In keeping with the spirit of the first meeting (and its predecessor, Hydroidfest), almost 75% of oral presentations were given by early career researchers (i.e., graduate students and postdocs). In this review, we present research highlights from the meeting.</p>","PeriodicalId":49076,"journal":{"name":"Evodevo","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2023-08-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10463417/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10121531","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Upregulation of Hox genes leading to caste-specific morphogenesis in a termite.","authors":"Kohei Oguchi,&nbsp;Toru Miura","doi":"10.1186/s13227-023-00216-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13227-023-00216-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>In social insects, interactions among colony members trigger caste differentiation with morphological modifications. In termite caste differentiation, caste-specific morphologies (such as mandibles in soldiers, genital organs in reproductives or wings in alates) are well developed during post-embryonic development under endocrine controls (e.g., juvenile hormone and ecdysone). Since body part-specific morphogenesis in caste differentiation is hormonally regulated by global factors circulated throughout the body, positional information should be required for the caste-specific and also body part-specific morphogenesis. To identify factors providing the positional information, expression and functional analyses of eight Hox genes were carried out during the three types of caste differentiation (i.e., soldier, neotenic and alate differentiation) in a termite, Hodotermopsis sjostedti.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Spatio-temporal patterns of Hox gene expression during caste differentiation were elucidated by real-time qPCR, showing the caste-specific upregulations of Hox genes during the differentiation processes. Among eight Hox genes, Deformed (Dfd) was upregulated specifically in mandibles in soldier differentiation, abdominal-A (abd-A) and Abdominal-B (Abd-B) were upregulated in the abdomen in neotenic differentiation, while Sex-comb reduced (Scr) and Antennapedia (Antp) were upregulated during alate differentiation. Furthermore, RNAi knockdown of Dfd in soldier differentiation and of abd-A and Abd-B in neotenic differentiation distorted the modifications of caste-specific morphologies.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Gene expression and functional analyses in this study revealed that, in the caste differentiation in termites, upregulation of Hox genes provide positional identities of body segments, resulting in the caste-specific morphogenesis. The acquisition of such developmental modifications would have enabled the evolution of sophisticated caste systems in termites.</p>","PeriodicalId":49076,"journal":{"name":"Evodevo","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2023-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10375622/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10251491","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Expression and possible functions of a horizontally transferred glycosyl hydrolase gene, GH6-1, in Ciona embryogenesis.","authors":"Kun-Lung Li,&nbsp;Keisuke Nakashima,&nbsp;Kanako Hisata,&nbsp;Noriyuki Satoh","doi":"10.1186/s13227-023-00215-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13227-023-00215-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The Tunicata or Urochordata is the only animal group with the ability to synthesize cellulose directly and cellulose is a component of the tunic that covers the entire tunicate body. The genome of Ciona intestinalis type A contains a cellulose synthase gene, CesA, that it acquired via an ancient, horizontal gene transfer. CesA is expressed in embryonic epidermal cells and functions in cellulose production. Ciona CesA is composed of both a glycosyltransferase domain, GT2, and a glycosyl hydrolase domain, GH6, which shows a mutation at a key position and seems functionless. Interestingly, the Ciona genome contains a glycosyl hydrolase gene, GH6-1, in which the GH6 domain seems intact. This suggests expression and possible functions of GH6-1 during Ciona embryogenesis. Is GH6-1 expressed during embryogenesis? If so, in what tissues is the gene expressed? Does GH6-1 serve a function? If so, what is it? Answers to these questions may advance our understanding of evolution of this unique animal group.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Quantitative reverse transcription PCR and in situ hybridization revealed that GH6-1 is expressed in epidermis of tailbud embryos and in early swimming larvae, a pattern similar to that of CesA. Expression is downregulated at later stages and becomes undetectable in metamorphosed juveniles. The GH6-1 expression level is higher in the anterior-trunk region and caudal-tip regions of late embryos. Single-cell RNA sequencing analysis of the late tailbud stage showed that cells of three clusters with epidermal identity express GH6-1, and that some of them co-express CesA. TALEN-mediated genome editing was used to generate GH6-1 knockout Ciona larvae. Around half of TALEN-electroporated larvae showed abnormal development of adhesive papillae and altered distribution of surface cellulose. In addition, three-fourths of TALEN-electroporated animals failed to complete larval metamorphosis.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>This study showed that tunicate GH6-1, a gene that originated by horizontal gene transfer of a prokaryote gene, is recruited into the ascidian genome, and that it is expressed and functions in epidermal cells of ascidian embryos. Although further research is required, this observation demonstrates that both CesA and GH6-1 are involved in tunicate cellulose metabolism, impacting tunicate morphology and ecology.</p>","PeriodicalId":49076,"journal":{"name":"Evodevo","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2023-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10334666/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10190707","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Feedback circuits are numerous in embryonic gene regulatory networks and offer a stabilizing influence on evolution of those networks.","authors":"Abdull Jesus Massri,&nbsp;Brennan McDonald,&nbsp;Gregory A Wray,&nbsp;David R McClay","doi":"10.1186/s13227-023-00214-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13227-023-00214-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The developmental gene regulatory networks (dGRNs) of two sea urchin species, Lytechinus variegatus (Lv) and Strongylocentrotus purpuratus (Sp), have remained remarkably similar despite about 50 million years since a common ancestor. Hundreds of parallel experimental perturbations of transcription factors with similar outcomes support this conclusion. A recent scRNA-seq analysis suggested that the earliest expression of several genes within the dGRNs differs between Lv and Sp. Here, we present a careful reanalysis of the dGRNs in these two species, paying close attention to timing of first expression. We find that initial expression of genes critical for cell fate specification occurs during several compressed time periods in both species. Previously unrecognized feedback circuits are inferred from the temporally corrected dGRNs. Although many of these feedbacks differ in location within the respective GRNs, the overall number is similar between species. We identify several prominent differences in timing of first expression for key developmental regulatory genes; comparison with a third species indicates that these heterochronies likely originated in an unbiased manner with respect to embryonic cell lineage and evolutionary branch. Together, these results suggest that interactions can evolve even within highly conserved dGRNs and that feedback circuits may buffer the effects of heterochronies in the expression of key regulatory genes.</p>","PeriodicalId":49076,"journal":{"name":"Evodevo","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2023-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10273620/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10034859","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}