Articles

Evolution and expression of LEAFY genes in ferns and lycophytes

The LEAFY (LFY) transcription factors are present in algae and across land plants. The available expression and functional data of these genes in embryophytes suggest that LFY genes control a plethora of processe...

Authors: Carolina Rodríguez-Pelayo, Barbara A. Ambrose, Alejandra Vasco, Juan F. Alzate and Natalia Pabón-Mora

Delayed differentiation of epidermal cells walls can underlie pedomorphosis in plants: the case of pedomorphic petals in the hummingbird-pollinated Caiophora hibiscifolia (Loasaceae, subfam. Loasoideae) species

Understanding the relationship between macroevolutionary diversity and variation in organism development is an important goal of evolutionary biology. Variation in the morphology of several plant and animal li...

Authors: Marina M. Strelin, Eduardo E. Zattara, Kristian Ullrich, Mareike Schallenberg-Rüdinger and Stefan Rensing

Whole body regeneration and developmental competition in two botryllid ascidians

Botryllid ascidians are a group of marine invertebrate chordates that are colonial and grow by repeated rounds of asexual reproduction to form a colony of individual bodies, called zooids, linked by a common v...

Authors: Shane Nourizadeh, Susannah Kassmer, Delany Rodriguez, Laurel S. Hiebert and Anthony W. De Tomaso

Case not closed: the mystery of the origin of the carpel

The carpel is a fascinating structure that plays a critical role in flowering plant reproduction and contributed greatly to the evolutionary success and diversification of flowering plants. The remarkable feat...

Authors: Beatriz Gonçalves

Correction to: Breaking evolutionary and pleiotropic constraints in mammals: on sloths, manatees and homeotic mutations

Authors: Irma Varela-Lasheras, Alexander J. Bakker, Steven D. van der Mije, Johan A. J. Metz, Joris van Alphen and Frietson Galis

A chelicerate Wnt gene expression atlas: novel insights into the complexity of arthropod Wnt-patterning

The Wnt genes represent a large family of secreted glycoprotein ligands that date back to early animal evolution. Multiple duplication events generated a set of 13 Wnt families of which 12 are preserved in pro...

Authors: Ralf Janssen, Matthias Pechmann and Natascha Turetzek

Duplication of spiralian-specific TALE genes and evolution of the blastomere specification mechanism in the bivalve lineage

Despite the conserved pattern of the cell-fate map among spiralians, bivalves display several modified characteristics during their early development, including early specification of the D blastomere by the c...

Authors: Supanat Phuangphong, Jumpei Tsunoda, Hiroshi Wada and Yoshiaki Morino

The Nereid on the rise: Platynereis as a model system

The Nereid Platynereis dumerilii (Audouin and Milne Edwards (Annales des Sciences Naturelles 1:195–269, 1833) is a marine annelid that belongs to the Nereididae, a family of errant polychaete worms. The Nereid sh...

Authors: B. Duygu Özpolat, Nadine Randel, Elizabeth A. Williams, Luis Alberto Bezares-Calderón, Gabriele Andreatta, Guillaume Balavoine, Paola Y. Bertucci, David E. K. Ferrier, Maria Cristina Gambi, Eve Gazave, Mette Handberg-Thorsager, Jörg Hardege, Cameron Hird, Yu-Wen Hsieh, Jerome Hui, Kevin Nzumbi Mutemi…

Cell-specific expression and individual function of prohormone convertase PC1/3 in Tribolium larval growth highlights major evolutionary changes between beetle and fly neuroendocrine systems

The insect neuroendocrine system acts in the regulation of physiology, development and growth. Molecular evolution of this system hence has the potential to allow for major biological differences between insec...

Authors: Sonja Fritzsche and Vera S. Hunnekuhl

Variation on a theme: pigmentation variants and mutants of anemonefish

Pigmentation patterning systems are of great interest to understand how changes in developmental mechanisms can lead to a wide variety of patterns. These patterns are often conspicuous, but their origins remai...

Authors: Marleen Klann, Manon Mercader, Lilian Carlu, Kina Hayashi, James Davis Reimer and Vincent Laudet

Panarthropod tiptop/teashirt and spalt orthologs and their potential role as “trunk”-selector genes

In the vinegar fly Drosophila melanogaster, the homeodomain containing transcription factor Teashirt (Tsh) appears to specify trunk identity in concert with the function of the Hox genes. While in Drosophila ther...

Authors: Brenda I. Medina-Jiménez, Graham E. Budd and Ralf Janssen

Sex-specific plasticity and the nutritional geometry of insulin-signaling gene expression in Drosophila melanogaster

Sexual-size dimorphism (SSD) is replete among animals, but while the selective pressures that drive the evolution of SSD have been well studied, the developmental mechanisms upon which these pressures act are ...

Authors: Jeanne M. C. McDonald, Pegah Nabili, Lily Thorsen, Sohee Jeon and Alexander W. Shingleton

Early embryogenesis and organogenesis in the annelid Owenia fusiformis

Annelids are a diverse group of segmented worms within Spiralia, whose embryos exhibit spiral cleavage and a variety of larval forms. While most modern embryological studies focus on species with unequal spira...

Authors: Allan Martín Carrillo-Baltodano, Océane Seudre, Kero Guynes and José María Martín-Durán

Distinct tooth regeneration systems deploy a conserved battery of genes

Vertebrate teeth exhibit a wide range of regenerative systems. Many species, including most mammals, reptiles, and amphibians, form replacement teeth at a histologically distinct location called the succession...

Authors: Tyler A. Square, Shivani Sundaram, Emma J. Mackey and Craig T. Miller

Post-metamorphic skeletal growth in the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus and implications for body plan evolution

Understanding the molecular and cellular processes that underpin animal development are crucial for understanding the diversity of body plans found on the planet today. Because of their abundance in the fossil...

Authors: Jeffrey R. Thompson, Periklis Paganos, Giovanna Benvenuto, Maria Ina Arnone and Paola Oliveri

Among the shapeshifters: parasite-induced morphologies in ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) and their relevance within the EcoEvoDevo framework

As social insects, ants represent extremely interaction-rich biological systems shaped by tightly integrated social structures and constant mutual exchange with a multitude of internal and external environment...

Authors: Alice Laciny

Insights into how development and life-history dynamics shape the evolution of venom

Venomous animals are a striking example of the convergent evolution of a complex trait. These animals have independently evolved an apparatus that synthesizes, stores, and secretes a mixture of toxic compounds...

Authors: Joachim M. Surm and Yehu Moran

Nothobranchius annual killifishes

Annual fishes of the genus Nothobranchius inhabit ephemeral habitats in Eastern and Southeastern Africa. Their life cycle is characterized by very rapid maturation, a posthatch lifespan of a few weeks to month...

Authors: Eva Terzibasi Tozzini and Alessandro Cellerino

The pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis

The freshwater snail Lymnaea stagnalis has a long research history, but only relatively recently has it emerged as an attractive model organism to study molecular mechanisms in the areas of developmental biology ...

Authors: Reiko Kuroda and Masanori Abe

Further evidence that mechanisms of host/symbiont integration are dissimilar in the maternal versus embryonic Acyrthosiphon pisum bacteriome

Host/symbiont integration is a signature of evolutionarily ancient, obligate endosymbioses. However, little is known about the cellular and developmental mechanisms of host/symbiont integration at the molecula...

Authors: Celeste R. Banfill, Alex C. C. Wilson and Hsiao-ling Lu

Serial blockface SEM suggests that stem cells may participate in adult notochord growth in an invertebrate chordate, the Bahamas lancelet

The cellular basis of adult growth in cephalochordates (lancelets or amphioxus) has received little attention. Lancelets and their constituent organs grow slowly but continuously during adult life. Here, we co...

Authors: Nicholas D. Holland and Ildiko M. L. Somorjai

Interplay of mesoscale physics and agent-like behaviors in the parallel evolution of aggregative multicellularity

Myxobacteria and dictyostelids are prokaryotic and eukaryotic multicellular lineages, respectively, that after nutrient depletion aggregate and develop into structures called fruiting bodies. The developmental...

Authors: Juan A. Arias Del Angel, Vidyanand Nanjundiah, Mariana Benítez and Stuart A. Newman

Anemonefish, a model for Eco-Evo-Devo

Anemonefish, are a group of about 30 species of damselfish (Pomacentridae) that have long aroused the interest of coral reef fish ecologists. Combining a series of original biological traits and practical feat...

Authors: Natacha Roux, Pauline Salis, Shu-Hua Lee, Laurence Besseau and Vincent Laudet

Ectocarpus: an evo-devo model for the brown algae

Ectocarpus is a genus of filamentous, marine brown algae. Brown algae belong to the stramenopiles, a large supergroup of organisms that are only distantly related to animals, land plants and fungi. Brown algae ar...

Authors: Susana M. Coelho, Akira F. Peters, Dieter Müller and J. Mark Cock

Genomic resources and toolkits for developmental study of whip spiders (Amblypygi) provide insights into arachnid genome evolution and antenniform leg patterning

The resurgence of interest in the comparative developmental study of chelicerates has led to important insights, such as the discovery of a genome duplication shared by spiders and scorpions, inferred to have ...

Authors: Guilherme Gainett and Prashant P. Sharma

Activin/Nodal signaling mediates dorsal–ventral axis formation before third quartet formation in embryos of the annelid Chaetopterus pergamentaceus

The clade of protostome animals known as the Spiralia (e.g., mollusks, annelids, nemerteans and polyclad flatworms) shares a highly conserved program of early development. This includes shared arrangement of c...

Authors: Alexis R. Lanza and Elaine C. Seaver

Evolution and development of three highly specialized floral structures of bee-pollinated Phalaenopsis species

Variation in shape and size of many floral organs is related to pollinators. Evolution of such organs is driven by duplication and modification of MADS-box and MYB transcription factors. We applied a combinati...

Authors: Dewi Pramanik, Nemi Dorst, Niels Meesters, Marlies Spaans, Erik Smets, Monique Welten and Barbara Gravendeel

Expression of smooth muscle-like effectors and core cardiomyocyte regulators in the contractile papillae of Ciona

The evolution of vertebrate smooth muscles is obscured by lack of identifiable smooth muscle-like cells in tunicates, the invertebrates most closely related to vertebrates. A recent evolutionary model was prop...

Authors: Christopher J. Johnson, Florian Razy-Krajka and Alberto Stolfi

Astyanax surface and cave fish morphs

The small teleost fish Astyanax mexicanus has emerged as an outstanding model for studying many biological topics in the context of evolution. A major attribute is conspecific surface dwelling (surface fish) and ...

Authors: William R. Jeffery

Volvox and volvocine green algae

The transition of life from single cells to more complex multicellular forms has occurred at least two dozen times among eukaryotes and is one of the major evolutionary transitions, but the early steps that en...

Authors: James G. Umen

Can the anatomy of abnormal flowers elucidate relationships of the androecial members in the ginger (Zingiberaceae)?

Interpretation of the floral structure of Zingiberaceae has long concentrated on the relationships of the androecial members. It suggested that labellum is composed of two structures rather than three or five,...

Authors: Xiumei Li, Tian Fan, Pu Zou, Wenhu Zhang, Xiuju Wu, Yixin Zhang and Jingping Liao

Differential cellular proliferation underlies heterochronic generation of cranial diversity in phyllostomid bats

Skull diversity in the neotropical leaf-nosed bats (Phyllostomidae) evolved through a heterochronic process called peramorphosis, with underlying causes varying by subfamily. The nectar-eating (subfamily Gloss...

Authors: Jasmin Camacho, Rachel Moon, Samantha K. Smith, Jacky D. Lin, Charles Randolph, John J. Rasweiler IV, Richard R. Behringer and Arhat Abzhanov

Transcription factors underlying wing margin color patterns and pupal cuticle markings in butterflies

The diversity of butterfly color patterns can be attributed to a relatively small number of pattern elements that are homologous across Lepidoptera. Although genes involved in patterning some of these elements...

Authors: Robert D. Reed, Jayne E. Selegue, Linlin Zhang and Craig R. Brunetti

Oncopeltus-like gene expression patterns in Murgantia histrionica, a new hemipteran model system, suggest ancient regulatory network divergence

Much has been learned about basic biology from studies of insect model systems. The pre-eminent insect model system, Drosophila melanogaster, is a holometabolous insect with a derived mode of segment formation. W...

Authors: Jessica Hernandez, Leslie Pick and Katie Reding

Introduction to emerging systems

Authors: Michalis Averof and Chiara Sinigaglia

The colonial cnidarian Hydractinia

Hydractinia, a genus of colonial marine cnidarians, has been used as a model organism for developmental biology and comparative immunology for over a century. It was this animal where stem cells and germ cells we...

Authors: Uri Frank, Matthew L. Nicotra and Christine E. Schnitzler

The common house spider Parasteatoda tepidariorum

The common house spider Parasteatoda tepidariorum, belonging to the Chelicerata in the phylum Arthropoda, has emerged as an experimental system for studying mechanisms of development from an evolutionary standpoi...

Authors: Hiroki Oda and Yasuko Akiyama-Oda

The free-living flatworm Macrostomum lignano

Macrostomum lignano is a free-living flatworm that is emerging as an attractive experimental animal for research on a broad range of biological questions. One feature setting it apart from other flatworms is the ...

Authors: Jakub Wudarski, Bernhard Egger, Steven A. Ramm, Lukas Schärer, Peter Ladurner, Kira S. Zadesenets, Nikolay B. Rubtsov, Stijn Mouton and Eugene Berezikov

Expression of gynoecium patterning transcription factors in Aristolochia fimbriata (Aristolochiaceae) and their contribution to gynostemium development

In Aristolochia (Aristolochiaceae) flowers, the congenital fusion of the anthers and the commissural, stigmatic lobes forms a gynostemium. Although the molecular bases associated to the apical–basal gynoecium pat...

Authors: Pablo Peréz-Mesa, Clara Inés Ortíz-Ramírez, Favio González, Cristina Ferrándiz and Natalia Pabón-Mora

Hox gene expression during development of the phoronid Phoronopsis harmeri

Phoronida is a small group of marine worm-like suspension feeders, which together with brachiopods and bryozoans form the clade Lophophorata. Although their development is well studied on the morphological lev...

Authors: Ludwik Gąsiorowski and Andreas Hejnol

Elongation during segmentation shows axial variability, low mitotic rates, and synchronized cell cycle domains in the crustacean, Thamnocephalus platyurus

Segmentation in arthropods typically occurs by sequential addition of segments from a posterior growth zone. However, the amount of tissue required for growth and the cell behaviors producing posterior elongat...

Authors: Savvas J. Constantinou, Nicole Duan, Lisa M. Nagy, Ariel D. Chipman and Terri A. Williams

Molecular patterning during the development of Phoronopsis harmeri reveals similarities to rhynchonelliform brachiopods

Phoronids, rhynchonelliform and linguliform brachiopods show striking similarities in their embryonic fate maps, in particular in their axis specification and regionalization. However, although brachiopod deve...

Authors: Carmen Andrikou, Yale J. Passamaneck, Chris J. Lowe, Mark Q. Martindale and Andreas Hejnol

Identifying the homology of the short human pisiform and its lost ossification center

The pisiform and calcaneus are paralogous bones of the wrist and ankle and are the only carpal and tarsal, respectively, to develop from two ossification centers with an associated growth plate in mammals. Hum...

Authors: Kelsey M. Kjosness and Philip L. Reno

Putative stem cells in the hemolymph and in the intestinal submucosa of the solitary ascidian Styela plicata

In various ascidian species, circulating stem cells have been documented to be involved in asexual reproduction and whole-body regeneration. Studies of these cell population(s) are mainly restricted to colonia...

Authors: Juan Jiménez-Merino, Isadora Santos de Abreu, Laurel S. Hiebert, Silvana Allodi, Stefano Tiozzo, Cintia M. De Barros and Federico D. Brown

Mechanisms and evolution of resistance to environmental extremes in animals

When animals are exposed to an extreme environmental stress, one of three possible outcomes takes place: the animal dies, the animal avoids the environmental stress and survives, or the animal tolerates the en...

Authors: Thomas C. Boothby

Cell cycle dynamics during diapause entry and exit in an annual killifish revealed by FUCCI technology

Annual killifishes are adapted to surviving and reproducing over alternating dry and wet seasons. During the dry season, all adults die and desiccation-resistant embryos remain encased in dry mud for months or...

Authors: Luca Dolfi, Roberto Ripa, Adam Antebi, Dario Riccardo Valenzano and Alessandro Cellerino

FoxB, a new and highly conserved key factor in arthropod dorsal–ventral (DV) limb patterning

Forkhead box (Fox) transcription factors evolved early in animal evolution and represent important components of conserved gene regulatory networks (GRNs) during animal development. Most of the researches conc...

Authors: Miriam Heingård, Natascha Turetzek, Nikola-Michael Prpic and Ralf Janssen

Characterization of nAChRs in Nematostella vectensis supports neuronal and non-neuronal roles in the cnidarian–bilaterian common ancestor

Nicotinic and muscarinic acetylcholine receptors likely evolved in the cnidarian–bilaterian common ancestor. Both receptor families are best known for their role at chemical synapses in bilaterian animals, but...

Authors: Dylan Z. Faltine-Gonzalez and Michael J. Layden

Diverse cell junctions with unique molecular composition in tissues of a sponge (Porifera)

The integrity and organization of animal tissues depend upon specialized protein complexes that mediate adhesion between cells with each other (cadherin-based adherens junctions), and with the extracellular ma...

Authors: Jennyfer M. Mitchell and Scott A. Nichols

Remnants of ancestral larval eyes in an eyeless mollusk? Molecular characterization of photoreceptors in the scaphopod Antalis entalis

Eyes have evolved and been lost multiple times during animal evolution, however, the process of eye loss has only been reconstructed in a few cases. Mollusks exhibit eyes as varied as the octopod camera eye or...

Authors: Tim Wollesen, Carmel McDougall and Detlev Arendt