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Transcription factors that determine retinal development seem to be conserved in different phyla throughout the animal kingdom. In most representatives, however, only a few of the involved transcription factor...
Two visual systems are present in most arthropod groups: median and lateral eyes. Most of our current knowledge about the developmental and molecular mechanisms involved in eye formation in arthropods comes fr...
How adaptive phenotypes are shaped by the action of key developmental genes during ontogeny remains poorly understood. Water striders, a group of hemipteran insects, present a unique example of adaptation to l...
The molecular mechanisms underlying sex determination and differentiation in animals are incredibly diverse. The Dmrt (doublesex and mab-3 related transcription factor) gene family is an evolutionary ancient grou...
The tardigrades (water bears) are a cosmopolitan group of microscopic ecdysozoans found in a variety of aquatic and temporarily wet environments. They are members of the Panarthropoda (Tardigrada + Onychophora...
Simple life cycles arise from complex life cycles when one or more developmental stages are lost. This raises a fundamental question - how can an intermediate stage, such as a larva, be removed, and developmen...
Brachiopods undergo radial cleavage, which is distinct from the stereotyped development of closely related spiralian taxa. The mesoderm has been inferred to derive from the archenteron walls following gastrula...
The urodele amphibians (salamanders) are the only adult tetrapods able to regenerate the limb. It is unclear if this is an ancestral property that is retained in salamanders but lost in other tetrapods or if i...
The limb and autopodium are frequently employed to study pattern formation during embryonic development, providing insights into how cells give rise to complex anatomical structures. With regard to the differe...
The ABC model of flower development describes the molecular basis for specification of floral organ identity in model eudicots such as Arabidopsis and Antirrhinum. According to this model, expression of C-class g...
The bat has strikingly divergent forelimbs (long digits supporting wing membranes) and hindlimbs (short, typically free digits) due to the distinct requirements of both aerial and terrestrial locomotion. Durin...
Within Malacostraca (Crustacea), direct development and development through diverse forms of larvae are found. Recent investigations suggest that larva-related developmental features have undergone heterochron...
Nodal is an important determinant of the left-right (LR) body axis in bilaterians, specifying the right side in protostomes and non-chordate deuterostomes as opposed to the left side in chordates. Amphioxus re...
The form that an animal takes during development is directed by gene regulatory networks (GRNs). Developmental GRNs interpret maternally deposited molecules and externally supplied signals to direct cell-fate ...
The cellular signaling mechanisms and morphogenic movements involved in axis formation and gastrulation are well conserved between vertebrates. In nearly all described fish, gastrulation and the initial patter...
Ctenophores have traditionally been treated as eumetazoans, but some recent whole genome studies have revived the idea that they are, rather, the sister group to all other metazoans. This deep branching positi...
The Solenogastres (or Neomeniomorpha) are a taxon of aplacophoran molluscs with contentious phylogenetic placement. Since available developmental data on non-conchiferan (that is, aculiferan) molluscs mainly s...
The independent origin and evolution of leaves as small, simple microphylls or larger, more complex megaphylls in plants has shaped and influenced the natural composition of the environment. Significant contri...
Two issues relating to the translocation of anterior Hox genes in echinoderms to the 5’ end of the Hox cluster are discussed: i) that developmental changes associated with fixation to the substratum have led to a...
Seahorses are well known for their highly derived head shape, prehensile tail and armoured body. They belong to the family of teleosts known as Syngnathidae, which also includes the pipefishes, pipehorses and ...
Hox genes are master regulatory genes that specify positional identities during axial development in animals. Discoveries regarding their concerted expression patterns have commanded intense interest due to th...
Developmental biology, as all experimental science, is empowered by technological advances. The availability of genetic tools in some species - designated as model organisms - has driven their use as major pla...
Lepidium sisymbrioides, a polyploid New Zealand endemic, is the sole dioecious species in Brassicaceae and therefore the closest dioecious relative of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. The attractiveness of d...
Among the Lophotrochozoa, cephalopods possess the highest degree of central nervous system (CNS) centralization and complexity. Although the anatomy of the developing cephalopod CNS has been investigated, the ...
Understanding the molecular basis of craniofacial variation can provide insights into key developmental mechanisms of adaptive changes and their role in trophic divergence and speciation. Arctic charr (Salvelinus...
Metazoan digestive systems develop from derivatives of ectoderm, endoderm and mesoderm, and vary in the relative contribution of each germ layer across taxa and between gut regions. In a small number of well-s...
Insect embryonic dorso-ventral patterning depends greatly on two pathways: the Toll pathway and the Bone Morphogenetic Protein pathway. While the relative contribution of each pathway has been investigated in ...
Proseriates (Proseriata, Platyhelminthes) are free-living, mostly marine, flatworms measuring at most a few millimetres. In common with many flatworms, they are known to be capable of regeneration; however, fe...
Although chordates descend from a segmented ancestor, the evolution of head segmentation has been very controversial for over 150 years. Chordates generally possess a segmented pharynx, but even though anatomi...
Enhanced food-finding efficiency is an obvious adaptive response to cave environments. Here, we have compared the food-finding abilities of Astyanax surface fish and blind cavefish young larvae in their first mon...
Multicellularity provides organisms with opportunities for cell-type specialization, but requires novel mechanisms to position correct proportions of different cell types throughout the organism. Dictyostelid ...
Mammals exhibit a remarkable variety of phenotypes and comparative studies using novel model species are needed to uncover the evolutionary developmental mechanisms generating this diversity. Here, we undertak...
Annual killifishes inhabit temporary ponds and their embryos survive the dry season encased in the mud by entering diapause, a process that arrests embryonic development during hostile conditions. Annual killi...
During development, juvenile nematodes undergo four molts. Although the number of molts appears to be constant within the Nematoda, the timing of the first molt can occur either before or after hatching. A pre...
Cellular differentiation is a critical process during development of multicellular animals that must be tightly controlled in order to avoid precocious differentiation or failed generation of differentiated ce...
The Hes superfamily or Hes/Hey-related genes encompass a variety of metazoan-specific bHLH genes, with somewhat fuzzy phylogenetic relationships. Hes superfamily members are involved in a variety of major develop...
The teleost Astyanax mexicanus is a single species consisting of eyed surface-dwelling (surface fish) and blind cave-dwelling (cavefish) morphs. Cavefish eyes are lost through apoptosis of the lens, which in turn...
Disentangling evolutionary shifts in developmental timing (heterochony) is dependent upon accurate estimates of ancestral patterns. However, many classic assessments of heterochronic patterns predate robust ph...
The primary hormone of the vertebrate pineal gland, melatonin, has been identified broadly throughout the eukaryotes. While the role for melatonin in cyclic behavior via interactions with the circadian clock h...
A particularly critical event in avian evolution was the transition from long- to short-tailed birds. Primitive bird tails underwent significant alteration, most notably reduction of the number of caudal verte...
Segmentation is a feature of the body plans of a number of diverse animal groupings, including the annelids, arthropods and chordates. However, it has been unclear whether or not these different manifestations...
The Pax-Six-Eya-Dach network (PSEDN) is involved in a variety of developmental processes, including well documented roles in determination of sensory organs and morphogenesis in bilaterian animals. Expression of ...
The Hox gene cluster ranks among the greatest of biological discoveries of the past 30 years. Morphogenetic patterning genes are remarkable for the systems they regulate during major ontogenetic events, and fo...
The canals of the mechanosensory lateral line system are components of the dermatocranium, and demonstrate phenotypic variation in bony fishes. Widened lateral line canals evolved convergently in a limited num...
The bHLH-PAS transcription factors are found in both protostomes and deuterostomes. They are involved in many developmental and physiological processes, including regional differentiation of the central nervou...
Convergent evolution, the repeated evolution of similar phenotypes in independent lineages, provides natural replicates to study mechanisms of evolution. Cases of convergent evolution might have the same under...
Germline specification in some animals is driven by the maternally inherited germ plasm during early embryogenesis (inheritance mode), whereas in others it is induced by signals from neighboring cells in mid o...
The Fox gene family is a large family of transcription factors that arose early in organismal evolution dating back to at least the common ancestor of metazoans and fungi. They are key components of many gene ...
Diapause is a developmental arrest present in annual killifish, whose eggs are able to survive long periods of desiccation when the temporary ponds they inhabit dry up. Diapause can occur in three different de...
The Sox genes, a family of transcription factors characterized by the presence of a high mobility group (HMG) box domain, are among the central groups of developmental regulators in the animal kingdom. They are i...
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