Batoids exhibit unique body plans with derived fin morphologies, such as the anteriorly expanded pectoral fins that fuse to the head, or distally extended anterior pelvic fin lobes used for a modified swimming...
The model Aquilegia coerulea x “Origami” possesses several interesting floral features, including petaloid sepals that are morphologically distinct from the true petals and a broad domain containing many whorls o...
The evolution of tetrapod limbs from paired fins has long been of interest to both evolutionary and developmental biologists. Several recent investigative tracks have converged to restructure hypotheses in thi...
Authors: Thomas A. Stewart, Ramray Bhat and Stuart A. Newman
Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are of central importance for dorsal–ventral (DV) axis specification. They are core components of a signalling cascade that includes the BMP ligand decapentaplegic (DPP) and ...
Authors: Karl R. Wotton, Anna Alcaine-Colet, Johannes Jaeger and Eva Jiménez-Guri
Nemertean embryos undergo equal spiral cleavage, and prior fate-mapping studies showed that some also exhibit key aspects of spiralian lineage-based fate specification, including specification of the primary t...
Authors: George von Dassow and Svetlana A. Maslakova
There have been few studies of head patterning in non-insect arthropods, and even in the insects, much is not yet understood. In the fly Drosophila three head gap genes, orthodenticle (otd), buttonhead (btd) and
Heterochronic shifts during mid- to late stages of organismal development have been proposed as key mechanisms generating phenotypic diversity. To determine whether late heterochronic shifts underlie derived f...
Authors: Jamie L. Kostyun, Jill C. Preston and Leonie C. Moyle
The free-living nematode Diploscapter coronatus is the closest known relative of Caenorhabditis elegans with parthenogenetic reproduction. It shows several developmental idiosyncracies, for example concerning the...
Authors: Christopher Kraus, Philipp H. Schiffer, Hiroshi Kagoshima, Hideaki Hiraki, Theresa Vogt, Michael Kroiher, Yuji Kohara and Einhard Schierenberg
Hemiptera is a large clade of insects understudied in terms of developmental biology. Halyomorpha halys, the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB, referred to throughout as H. halys), is an invasive hemipteran pest o...
Authors: Yong Lu, Mengyao Chen, Katie Reding and Leslie Pick
Pax genes are a family of conserved transcription factors that regulate many aspects of developmental morphogenesis, notably the development of ectodermal sensory structures including ...
How nervous systems evolved remains an unresolved question. Previous studies in vertebrates and arthropods revealed that homologous genes regulate important neurogenic processes such as cell proliferation and ...
Authors: Abhinav Sur, Craig R. Magie, Elaine C. Seaver and Néva P. Meyer
The evolutionary emergence and diversification of the chordates appear to involve dramatic changes in organ morphogenesis along the left/right axis. However, the ancestral chordate mechanism for establishing l...
Analyzing close species with diverse developmental modes is instrumental for investigating the evolutionary significance of physiological, anatomical and behavioral features at a molecular level. Many examples...
Authors: Claudia Racioppi, Maria Carmen Valoroso, Ugo Coppola, Elijah K. Lowe, C. Titus Brown, Billie J. Swalla, Lionel Christiaen, Alberto Stolfi and Filomena Ristoratore
Axon guidance receptors of the Roundabout (Robo) family regulate a number of axon guidance outcomes in bilaterian animals in addition to their canonical role in Slit-dependent midline repulsion. In the fruit fly
Cardiac outflow tract patterning and cell contribution are studied using an evo-devo approach to reveal insight into the development of aorto-pulmonary septation.
Authors: Robert E. Poelmann, Adriana C. Gittenberger-de Groot, Marcel W. M. Biermans, Anne I. Dolfing, Armand Jagessar, Sam van Hattum, Amanda Hoogenboom, Lambertus J. Wisse, Rebecca Vicente-Steijn, Merijn A. G. de Bakker, Freek J. Vonk, Tatsuya Hirasawa, Shigeru Kuratani and Michael K. Richardson
Vertebrate epithelial appendages constitute a diverse group of organs that includes integumentary structures such as reptilian scales, avian feathers and mammalian hair. Recent studies have provided new eviden...
Authors: Rory L. Cooper, Kyle J. Martin, Liam J. Rasch and Gareth J. Fraser
Hydroidfest 2016 took place on September 23–25 at the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory in Bodega Bay, CA. The meeting brought together cnidarian researchers, with an emphasis on those studying hydrozoans, fro...
Authors: Christophe Dupre, Juris A. Grasis, Robert E. Steele, Christine E. Schnitzler and Celina E. Juliano
Genotype and environment can interact during development to produce novel adaptive traits that support life in extreme conditions. The development of the annual killifish Austrofundulus limnaeus is unique among v...
SPATULA (SPT) and ALCATRAZ (ALC) are recent paralogs that belong to the large bHLH transcription factor family. Orthologs of these genes have been found in all core eudicots, whereas p...
Authors: Cecilia Zumajo-Cardona, Barbara Ann Ambrose and Natalia Pabón-Mora
Amphioxus larvae have a midbrain-level locomotory control center whose overall organization is known from serial TEM reconstructions. How it functions has been a puzzle, owing to uncertainty as to the transmit...
Passiflora (passionflowers) makes an excellent model for studying plant evolutionary development. They are mostly perennial climbers that display axillary tendrils, which are believed ...
Authors: Livia C. T. Scorza, Jose Hernandes-Lopes, Gladys F. A. Melo-de-Pinna and Marcelo C. Dornelas
The African rice Oryza glaberrima was domesticated from its wild relative Oryza barthii about 3000 years ago. During the domestication process, panicle complexity changed from a panicle with low complexity in O....
Authors: K. N. Ta, H. Adam, Y. M. Staedler, J. Schönenberger, T. Harrop, J. Tregear, N. V. Do, P. Gantet, A. Ghesquière and S. Jouannic
The arthropod head problem has troubled scientists for more than a century. The segmental composition of the arthropod head, homology of its appendages, and especially the nature of the most anterior region of...
The forelimb of the flightless emu is a vestigial structure, with greatly reduced wing elements and digit loss. To explore the molecular and cellular mechanisms associated with the evolution of vestigial wings...
Authors: Craig A. Smith, Peter G. Farlie, Nadia M. Davidson, Kelly N. Roeszler, Claire Hirst, Alicia Oshlack and David M. Lambert
Kinorhynchs are ecdysozoan animals with a phylogenetic position close to priapulids and loriciferans. To understand the nature of segmentation within Kinorhyncha and to infer a probable ancestry of segmentatio...
Many insects host their obligate, maternally transmitted symbiotic bacteria in specialized cells called bacteriocytes. One of the best-studied insect nutritional endosymbioses is that of the aphid and its endo...
Authors: Hsiao-ling Lu, Chun-che Chang and Alex C. C. Wilson
Basic Helix-Loop-Helix (bHLH) genes encode a large family of eukaryotic transcription factors, categorized into six high-order groups: pan-eukaryotic group B involved in regulation of cell cycle, metabolism, a...
Authors: Sofia A. V. Fortunato, Michel Vervoort, Marcin Adamski and Maja Adamska
Gonads are specialized gamete-producing structures that, despite their functional importance, are generated by diverse mechanisms across groups of animals and can be among the most plastic organs of the body. ...
Authors: B. Duygu Özpolat, Emily S. Sloane, Eduardo E. Zattara and Alexandra E. Bely
Genomic analysis has upended chordate phylogeny, placing the tunicates as the sister group to the vertebrates. This taxonomic rearrangement raises questions about the emergence of a tunicate/vertebrate ancestor.
Authors: Fernando Segade, Christina Cota, Amber Famiglietti, Anna Cha and Brad Davidson
Annelida is a morphologically diverse animal group that exhibits a remarkable variety in nervous system architecture (e.g., number and location of longitudinal cords, architecture of the brain). Despite this h...
Authors: Alexandra Kerbl, José M. Martín-Durán, Katrine Worsaae and Andreas Hejnol
Here we present a report on Ctenopalooza: A meeting of ctenophorologists held at the Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience in St. Augustine, FL, USA, on March 14–15, 2016. In this report, we provide a summa...
Authors: Joseph F. Ryan, Christine E. Schnitzler and Sidney L. Tamm
Dbx1 is a homeodomain transcription factor involved in neuronal fate specification belonging to a widely conserved family among bilaterians. In mammals, Dbx1 was proposed to act as a transcriptional repressor ...
Authors: Sonia Karaz, Maximilien Courgeon, Hélène Lepetit, Eugenia Bruno, Raimondo Pannone, Andrea Tarallo, France Thouzé, Pierre Kerner, Michel Vervoort, Frédéric Causeret, Alessandra Pierani and Giuseppe D’Onofrio
An essential developmental pathway in sexually reproducing animals is the specification of germ cells and the differentiation of mature gametes, sperm and oocytes. The “germline” genes vasa, nanos and piwi are...
Authors: Adam M. Reitzel, Kevin Pang and Mark Q. Martindale
Bocconia and Macleaya are the only genera of the poppy family (Papaveraceae) lacking petals; however, the developmental and genetic processes underlying such evolutionary shift have no...
Authors: Cristina Arango-Ocampo, Favio González, Juan Fernando Alzate and Natalia Pabón-Mora
Organisms develop and evolve in a modular fashion, but how individual modules interact with the environment remains poorly understood. Phenotypically plastic traits are often under selection, and studies are n...
Authors: Aabha I. Sharma, Katherine O. Yanes, Luyang Jin, Sarah L. Garvey, Sartu M. Taha and Yuichiro Suzuki
The evolution of animal segmentation is a major research focus within the field of evolutionary–developmental biology. Most studied segmented animals generate their segments in a repetitive, anterior-to-poster...
Authors: Renske M. A. Vroomans, Paulien Hogeweg and Kirsten H. W. J. ten Tusscher
The microvillus is a versatile organelle that serves important functions in disparate animal cell types. However, from a molecular perspective, the microvillus has been well studied in only a few, predominantl...
Authors: Jesús F. Peña, Alexandre Alié, Daniel J. Richter, Lingyu Wang, Noriko Funayama and Scott A. Nichols
New branches within the embryonic chicken lung form via apical constriction, in which epithelial cells in the primary bronchus become trapezoidal in shape. These branches form at precise locations along the pr...
Authors: Daniel Tzou, James W. Spurlin III, Amira L. Pavlovich, Carolyn R. Stewart, Jason P. Gleghorn and Celeste M. Nelson
The ancestral arthropod is believed to have had a clustered arrangement of ten Hox genes. Within arthropods, Hox gene mutations result in transformation of segment identities. Despite the fact that variation i...
Authors: Ryan M. Pace, Miodrag Grbić and Lisa M. Nagy
Platynereis and other polychaete annelids with homonomous segmentation are regarded to closely resemble ancestral forms of bilateria. The head region comprises the prostomium, the peri...
Authors: Jan Grimmel, Adriaan W. C. Dorresteijn and Andreas C. Fröbius
Germ cells are specified during early development and are responsible for generating gametes in the adult. After germ cells are specified, they typically migrate to a particular niche in the organism where the...
Authors: Adam D. Langenbacher and Anthony W. De Tomaso
Shifts in floral form across angiosperms, particularly from radially symmetrical to bilaterally symmetrical flowers, are often associated with shifts in speciation rates and changes in pollination syndrome. Gr...
Authors: Brent A. Berger, Veronica Thompson, Aedric Lim, Vincent Ricigliano and Dianella G. Howarth
Freshwater planarians are well known for their regenerative abilities. Less well known is how planarians maintain spatial patterning in long-lived adult animals or how they re-pattern tissues during regenerat...
Authors: Ko W. Currie, David D. R. Brown, Shujun Zhu, ChangJiang Xu, Veronique Voisin, Gary D. Bader and Bret J. Pearson
The aquiferous body plan of poriferans revolves around internal chambers comprised of choanocytes, a cell type structurally similar to choanoflagellates. These choanocyte chambers perform a range of physiologi...
Authors: Shunsuke Sogabe, Nagayasu Nakanishi and Bernard M. Degnan
The Neotropical frog genera Ceratophrys, Chacophrys and Lepidobatrachus form the monophyletic family Ceratophryidae. Although in- and out-group relationships are not fully resolved, the monophyly of the three ge...
Authors: Marissa Fabrezi, Silvia Inés Quinzio, Javier Goldberg, Julio César Cruz, Mariana Chuliver Pereyra and Richard J. Wassersug
The Hippo pathway regulates growth rate and organ size in fly and mouse, notably through control of cell proliferation. Molecular interactions at the heart of this pathway are known to have originated in the u...
Authors: Alicia Coste, Muriel Jager, Jean-Philippe Chambon and Michaël Manuel
Cichlid fishes from the Rift Lakes of East Africa have undergone the most spectacular adaptive radiations in vertebrate history. Eco-morphological adaptations in lakes Victoria, Malawi and Tanganyika have resu...
Authors: Pierre Le Pabic, W. James Cooper and Thomas F. Schilling
The evolutionary mechanisms involved in shaping complex gene regulatory networks (GRN) that encode for morphologically similar structures in distantly related animals remain elusive. In this context, echinoder...
Authors: David Viktor Dylus, Anna Czarkwiani, Josefine Stångberg, Olga Ortega-Martinez, Sam Dupont and Paola Oliveri
Obligate intracellular symbionts of insects are metabolically and developmentally integrated with their hosts. Typically, reproduction fails in many insect nutritional endosymbioses when host insects are cured...
Authors: Hsiao-ling Lu, Daniel R. G. Price, Athula Wikramanayake, Chun-che Chang and Alex C. C. Wilson
It has been hypothesized that the ParaHox gene Gsx patterned the foregut of the last common bilaterian ancestor. This notion was corroborated by Gsx expression in three out of four lophotrochozoan species, severa...
Authors: Tim Wollesen, Sonia Victoria Rodríguez Monje, Carmel McDougall, Bernard M. Degnan and Andreas Wanninger
