Legless and Eyeless Animals

Abstract

In this review, we briefly discuss genes involved in eye and leg development in Drosophila melanogaster and Vertebrates. The fact that these animals have many homologous genes and the ways these genes interact in their development is consistent with the concept of ‘deep homology’ and the hypotheses of a complex common ancestor of Bilateria, which had eyes and limbs. Nematode genomes contain most of the genes, which control eye and limb development in other animals. We show this is also true for Nematomorpha, though the sets of preserved genes are different in these taxa: ortholog of dpp/BMP was found in Nematomorpha, though Nematoda have just a paralogs of this gene. Both Nematoda and Nematomorpha lack orthologs of genes Ss, fng/Rfng, Cll, which regulate limbs development in other animals.