Articles

Embryonic neurogenesis in Pseudopallene sp. (Arthropoda, Pycnogonida) includes two subsequent phases with similarities to different arthropod groups

Studies on early neurogenesis have had considerable impact on the discussion of the phylogenetic relationships of arthropods, having revealed striking similarities and differences between the major lineages. I...

Authors: Georg Brenneis, Angelika Stollewerk and Gerhard Scholtz

Nuclearization of β-catenin in ectodermal precursors confers organizer-like ability to induce endomesoderm and pattern a pluteus larva

In many bilaterians, asymmetric activation of canonical Wnt (cWnt) signaling at the posterior pole is critical for anterior-posterior (AP) body axis formation. In 16-cell stage sea urchins, nuclearization of β...

Authors: Christine A Byrum and Athula H Wikramanayake

Two developmental switch points for the wing polymorphisms in the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum

In many insect taxa, wing polymorphism is known to be a consequence of tradeoffs between flight and other life-history traits. The pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum exhibits various morphs with or without wings assoc...

Authors: Kota Ogawa and Toru Miura

Put a tiger in your tank: the polyclad flatworm Maritigrella crozieri as a proposed model for evo-devo

Polyclad flatworms are an early branching clade within the rhabditophoran Platyhelminthes. They provide an interesting system with which to explore the evolution of development within Platyhelminthes and among...

Authors: François Lapraz, Kate A Rawlinson, Johannes Girstmair, Bartłomiej Tomiczek, Jürgen Berger, Gáspár Jékely, Maximilian J Telford and Bernhard Egger

Adaptive evolution of the lower jaw dentition in Mexican tetra (Astyanax mexicanus)

The Mexican tetra (Astyanax mexicanus) has emerged as a good animal model to study the constructive and regressive changes associated with living in cave environments, as both the ancestral sighted morph and the ...

Authors: Atukorallaya Devi Sewvandini Atukorala, Christine Hammer, Megan Dufton and Tamara Anne Franz-Odendaal

Evolution of bilaterian central nervous systems: a single origin?

The question of whether the ancestral bilaterian had a central nervous system (CNS) or a diffuse ectodermal nervous system has been hotly debated. Considerable evidence supports the theory that a CNS evolved j...

Authors: Linda Z Holland, João E Carvalho, Hector Escriva, Vincent Laudet, Michael Schubert, Sebastian M Shimeld and Jr-Kai Yu

Evolution of eye development in the darkness of caves: adaptation, drift, or both?

Animals inhabiting the darkness of caves are generally blind and de-pigmented, regardless of the phylum they belong to. Survival in this environment is an enormous challenge, the most obvious being to find foo...

Authors: Sylvie Rétaux and Didier Casane

Differences in chemosensory response between eyed and eyeless Astyanax mexicanus of the Rio Subterráneo cave

In blind cave-dwelling populations of Astyanax mexicanus, several morphological and behavioral shifts occurred during evolution in caves characterized by total and permanent darkness. Previous studies have shown ...

Authors: Jonathan Bibliowicz, Alexandre Alié, Luis Espinasa, Masato Yoshizawa, Maryline Blin, Hélène Hinaux, Laurent Legendre, Stéphane Père and Sylvie Rétaux

Rapid growth, early maturation and short generation time in African annual fishes

Extreme environmental conditions can give rise to extreme adaptations. We document growth, sexual maturation and fecundity in two species of African annual fish inhabiting temporary savanna pools.

Authors: Radim Blažek, Matej Polačik and Martin Reichard

Posterior Hox gene reduction in an arthropod: Ultrabithorax and Abdominal-B are expressed in a single segment in the mite Archegozetes longisetosus

Hox genes encode transcription factors that have an ancestral role in all bilaterian animals in specifying regions along the antero-posterior axis. In arthropods (insects, crustaceans, myriapods and chelicerat...

Authors: Austen A Barnett and Richard H Thomas

Early embryonic determination of the sexual dimorphism in segment number in geophilomorph centipedes

Most geophilomorph centipedes show intraspecific variability in the number of leg-bearing segments. This intraspecific variability generally has a component that is related to sex, with females having on avera...

Authors: Carlo Brena, Jack Green and Michael Akam

Erratum to: Expression of Hox genes during regeneration of nereid polychaete Alitta virens (Annelida, Lophotrochozoa)

Authors: Elena L Novikova, Nadezhda I Bakalenko, Alexander Y Nesterenko and Milana A Kulakova

Developmental coupling of larval and adult stages in a complex life cycle: insights from limb regeneration in the flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum

A complex life cycle, such as complete metamorphosis, is a key innovation that can promote diversification of species. The evolution of a morphologically distinct larval stage is thought to have enabled insect...

Authors: Alison K Lee, Christie C Sze, Elaine R Kim and Yuichiro Suzuki

Crocodylians evolved scattered multi-sensory micro-organs

During their evolution towards a complete life cycle on land, stem reptiles developed both an impermeable multi-layered keratinized epidermis and skin appendages (scales) providing mechanical, thermal, and che...

Authors: Nicolas Di-Poï and Michel C Milinkovitch

EvoDevo meets ecology: the Ninth Okazaki Biology Conference on Marine Biology

The “9th Okazaki Biology Conference: Marine Biology II” held at the National Institute for Basic Biology (NIBB) in Okazaki, Japan and at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) in Okinawa, Japan...

Authors: Ulrich Technau and Virginia M Weis

Expression of germline markers in three species of amphioxus supports a preformation mechanism of germ cell development in cephalochordates

In a previous study, we showed that the cephalochordate amphioxus Branchiostoma floridae has localized maternal transcripts of conserved germ cell markers Vasa and Nanos in its early embryos. These results provid...

Authors: Qiu-Jin Zhang, Yi-Jyun Luo, Hui-Ru Wu, Yen-Ta Chen and Jr-Kai Yu

A quantitative reference transcriptome for Nematostella vectensis earlyembryonic development: a pipeline for de novo assembly in emergingmodel systems

The de novo assembly of transcriptomes from short shotgun sequencesraises challenges due to random and non-random sequencing biases andinherent transcript complexity. We sought to define a pipeline for denovo tra...

Authors: Sarah Tulin, Derek Aguiar, Sorin Istrail and Joel Smith

Left-right asymmetric expression of dpp in the mantle of gastropods correlates with asymmetric shell coiling

Various shapes of gastropod shells have evolved ever since the Cambrian. Although theoretical analyses of morphogenesis exist, the molecular basis of shell development remains unclear. We compared expression p...

Authors: Keisuke Shimizu, Minoru Iijima, Davin HE Setiamarga, Isao Sarashina, Tetsuhiro Kudoh, Takahiro Asami, Edi Gittenberger and Kazuyoshi Endo

Expression of Hox genes during regeneration of nereid polychaete Alitta (Nereis) virens (Annelida, Lophotrochozoa)

Hox genes are the key determinants of different morphogenetic events in all bilaterian animals. These genes are probably responsible for the maintenance of regenerative capacities by providing positional infor...

Authors: Elena L Novikova, Nadezhda I Bakalenko, Alexander Y Nesterenko and Milana A Kulakova

Hox gene expression during postlarval development of the polychaete Alitta virens

Hox genes are the family of transcription factors that play a key role in the patterning of the anterior-posterior axis of all bilaterian animals. These genes display clustered organization and colinear expressio...

Authors: Nadezhda I Bakalenko, Elena L Novikova, Alexander Y Nesterenko and Milana A Kulakova

Progenitors of the protochordate ocellus as an evolutionary origin of the neural crest

The neural crest represents a highly multipotent population of embryonic stem cells found only in vertebrate embryos. Acquisition of the neural crest during the evolution of vertebrates was a great advantage, ...

Authors: Evgeniy Ivashkin and Igor Adameyko

Erratum to: Mechanisms of stomatal development: an evolutionary view

Authors: Anne Vatén and Dominique C Bergmann

The pea aphid uses a version of the terminal system during oviparous, but not viviparous, development

In most species of aphid, female nymphs develop into either sexual or asexual adults depending on the length of the photoperiod to which their mothers were exposed. The progeny of these sexual and asexual fema...

Authors: Ryan D Bickel, Hillary C Cleveland, Joanna Barkas, Caitlin C Jeschke, Amelie A Raz, David L Stern and Gregory K Davis

Functional genetic characterization of salivary gland development in Aedes aegypti

Despite the devastating global impact of mosquito-borne illnesses on human health, very little is known about mosquito developmental biology. In this investigation, functional genetic analysis of embryonic sal...

Authors: Chilinh Nguyen, Emily Andrews, Christy Le, Longhua Sun, Zeinab Annan, Anthony Clemons, David W Severson and Molly Duman-Scheel

The unique pseudanthium of Actinodium (Myrtaceae) - morphological reinvestigation and possible regulation by CYCLOIDEA-like genes

Genes encoding TCP transcription factors, such as CYCLOIDEA-like (CYC-like) genes, are well known actors in the control of plant morphological development, particularly regarding the control of floral symmetry. D...

Authors: Regine Claßen-Bockhoff, Raili Ruonala, Kester Bull-Hereñu, Neville Marchant and Victor A Albert

Co-option of a coordinate system defined by the EGFr and Dpp pathways in the evolution of a morphological novelty

Morphological innovation is an elusive and fascinating concept in evolutionary biology. A novel structure may open up an array of possibilities for adaptation, and thus is fundamental to the evolution of compl...

Authors: Barbara MI Vreede, Jeremy A Lynch, Siegfried Roth and Élio Sucena

Spalt expression and the development of melanic color patterns in pierid butterflies

Little is currently known about wing pattern development in the butterfly family Pieridae, which consists mostly of black melanized elements on white or yellow/orange backgrounds. A single transcription factor...

Authors: Andrew M Stoehr, Joseph F Walker and Antónia Monteiro

Field et al. Redux.

On 12 February 1988 (by coincidence Charles Darwin’s birthday), a paper published in Science by Katherine Field, Rudy Raff, and colleagues presented the first credible molecular analysis of metazoan phylogeny bas...

Authors: Maximilian J Telford

Expression of the Lhx genes apterous and lim1 in an errant polychaete: implications for bilaterian appendage evolution, neural development, and muscle diversification

Arthropod and vertebrate appendages appear to have evolved via parallel co-option of a plesiomorphic gene regulatory network. Our previous work implies that annelids evolved unrelated appendage-forming mechani...

Authors: Christopher J Winchell and David K Jacobs

Comparative pelvic development of the axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) and the Australian lungfish (Neoceratodus forsteri): conservation and innovation across the fish-tetrapod transition

The fish-tetrapod transition was one of the major events in vertebrate evolution and was enabled by many morphological changes. Although the transformation of paired fish fins into tetrapod limbs has been a ma...

Authors: Catherine Anne Boisvert, Jean MP Joss and Per E Ahlberg

Closing the circle of germline and stem cells: the Primordial Stem Cell hypothesis

Germline determination is believed to occur by either preformation or epigenesis. Animals that undergo germ cell specification by preformation have a continuous germline. However, animals with germline determi...

Authors: Jordi Solana

Comparative gene expression supports the origin of the incisor and molar process from a single endite in the mandible of the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum

The biting edge of the primitive arthropod mandible consists of a biting incisor process and a crushing molar process. These structures are thought to be derived from a structure known as an endite but the pre...

Authors: Joshua F Coulcher and Maximilian J Telford

Broken colinearity of the amphioxus Hox cluster

In most eumetazoans studied so far, Hox genes determine the identity of structures along the main body axis. They are usually linked in genomic clusters and, in the case of the vertebrate embryo, are expressed wi...

Authors: Juan Pascual-Anaya, Noritaka Adachi, Susana Álvarez, Shigeru Kuratani, Salvatore D’Aniello and Jordi Garcia-Fernàndez

Whole-body gene expression pattern registration in Platynereis larvae

Digital anatomical atlases are increasingly used in order to depict different gene expression patterns and neuronal morphologies within a standardized reference template. In evo-devo, a discipline in which the...

Authors: Albina Asadulina, Aurora Panzera, Csaba Verasztó, Christian Liebig and Gáspár Jékely

The double-corolla phenotype in the Hawaiian lobelioid genus Clermontia involves ectopic expression of PISTILLATA B-function MADS box gene homologs

The Hawaiian endemic genus Clermonti a (Campanulaceae) includes 22 species, 15 of which, the double-corolla species, are characterized by an extra whorl of organs that appear to be true petals occupying what is n...

Authors: Katherine A Hofer, Raili Ruonala and Victor A Albert

Cap’n’collar differentiates the mandible from the maxilla in the beetle Tribolium castaneum

The biting mandible of the arthropods is thought to have evolved in the ancestor of the insects, crustaceans and myriapods: the Mandibulata. A unique origin suggests a common set of developmental genes will be...

Authors: Joshua F Coulcher and Maximilian J Telford

Developmental and evolutionary origins of the pharyngeal apparatus

The vertebrate pharyngeal apparatus, serving the dual functions of feeding and respiration, has its embryonic origin in a series of bulges found on the lateral surface of the head, the pharyngeal arches. Devel...

Authors: Anthony Graham and Jo Richardson

Antibodies against conserved amidated neuropeptide epitopes enrich the comparative neurobiology toolbox

Neuronal antibodies that show immunoreactivity across a broad range of species are important tools for comparative neuroanatomy. Nonetheless, the current antibody repertoire for non-model invertebrates is limi...

Authors: Markus Conzelmann and Gáspár Jékely

Conservation and evolutionary divergence in the activity of receptor-regulated smads

Activity of the Transforming growth factor-β (TGFβ) pathway is essential to the establishment of body axes and tissue differentiation in bilaterians. Orthologs for core pathway members have been found in all m...

Authors: Gina M Sorrentino, William Q Gillis, Jamina Oomen-Hajagos and Gerald H Thomsen

Cleavage pattern and fate map of the mesentoblast, 4d, in the gastropod Crepidula: a hallmark of spiralian development

Animals with a spiral cleavage program, such as mollusks and annelids, make up the majority of the superphylum Lophotrochozoa. The great diversity of larval and adult body plans in this group emerges from this...

Authors: Deirdre C Lyons, Kimberly J Perry, Maryna P Lesoway and Jonathan Q Henry

Understanding the basis of a novel fruit type in Brassicaceae: conservation and deviation in expression patterns of six genes

Variation in fruit morphology is important for plant fitness because it influences dispersal capabilities. Approximately half the members of tribe Brassiceae (Brassicaceae) exhibit fruits with segmentation and...

Authors: Mariano Avino, Elena M Kramer, Kathleen Donohue, Alexander J Hammel and Jocelyn C Hall

Sequencing and analysis of the gastrula transcriptome of the brittle star Ophiocoma wendtii

The gastrula stage represents the point in development at which the three primary germ layers diverge. At this point the gene regulatory networks that specify the germ layers are established and the genes that...

Authors: Roy Vaughn, Nancy Garnhart, James R Garey, W Kelley Thomas and Brian T Livingston

A dating success story: genomes and fossils converge on placental mammal origins

The timing of the placental mammal radiation has been a source of contention for decades. The fossil record of mammals extends over 200 million years, but no confirmed placental mammal fossils are known prior ...

Authors: Anjali Goswami

Development of an embryonic skeletogenic mesenchyme lineage in a sea cucumber reveals the trajectory of change for the evolution of novel structures in echinoderms

The mechanisms by which the conserved genetic “toolkit” for development generates phenotypic disparity across metazoans is poorly understood. Echinoderm larvae provide a great resource for understanding how de...

Authors: Brenna S McCauley, Erin P Wright, Cameron Exner, Chisato Kitazawa and Veronica F Hinman

Transcriptional heterochrony in talpid mole autopods

Talpid moles show many specializations in their adult skeleton linked to fossoriality, including enlarged hands when compared to the feet. Heterochrony in developmental mechanisms is hypothesized to account fo...

Authors: Constanze Bickelmann, Christian Mitgutsch, Michael K Richardson, Rafael Jiménez, Merijn AG de Bakker and Marcelo R Sánchez-Villagra

The expression of Delta ligands in the sponge Amphimedon queenslandica suggests an ancient role for Notch signaling in metazoan development

Intercellular signaling via the Notch pathway regulates cell fate, patterning, differentiation and proliferation, and is essential for the proper development of bilaterians and cnidarians. To investigate the o...

Authors: Gemma S Richards and Bernard M Degnan

Genome-wide analysis of the sox family in the calcareous sponge Sycon ciliatum: multiple genes with unique expression patterns

Sox genes are HMG-domain containing transcription factors with important roles in developmental processes in animals; many of them appear to have conserved functions among eumetazoans. Demosponges have fewer S...

Authors: Sofia Fortunato, Marcin Adamski, Brith Bergum, Corina Guder, Signe Jordal, Sven Leininger, Christin Zwafink, Hans Tore Rapp and Maja Adamska

The Middle Cambrian fossil Pikaia and the evolution of chordate swimming

Conway Morris and Caron (2012) have recently published an account of virtually all the available information on Pikaia gracilens, a well-known Cambrian fossil and supposed basal chordate, and propose on this basi...

Authors: Thurston Lacalli

Mechanisms of stomatal development: an evolutionary view

Plant development has a significant postembryonic phase that is guided heavily by interactions between the plant and the outside environment. This interplay is particularly evident in the development, pattern ...

Authors: Anne Vatén and Dominique C Bergmann

Plectus - a stepping stone in embryonic cell lineage evolution of nematodes

Recent studies have challenged the widespread view that the pattern of embryogenesis found in Caenorhabditis elegans (clade 9) is characteristic of nematodes in general. To understand this still largely unexplore...

Authors: Jens Schulze, Wouter Houthoofd, Jana Uenk, Sandra Vangestel and Einhard Schierenberg