Dataset Information

Evolution and Developmental System Drift in the Endoderm Gene Regulatory Network of Caenorhabditis and Other Nematodes.

ABSTRACT: Developmental gene regulatory networks (GRNs) underpin metazoan embryogenesis and have undergone substantial modification to generate the tremendous variety of animal forms present on Earth today. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has been a central model for advancing many important discoveries in fundamental mechanistic biology and, more recently, has provided a strong base from which to explore the evolutionary diversification of GRN architecture and developmental processes in other species. In this short review, we will focus on evolutionary diversification of the GRN for the most ancient of the embryonic germ layers, the endoderm. Early embryogenesis diverges considerably across the phylum Nematoda. Notably, while some species deploy regulative development, more derived species, such as C. elegans, exhibit largely mosaic modes of embryogenesis. Despite the relatively similar morphology of the nematode gut across species, widespread variation has been observed in the signaling inputs that initiate the endoderm GRN, an exemplar of developmental system drift (DSD). We will explore how genetic variation in the endoderm GRN helps to drive DSD at both inter- and intraspecies levels, thereby resulting in a robust developmental system. Comparative studies using divergent nematodes promise to unveil the genetic mechanisms controlling developmental plasticity and provide a paradigm for the principles governing evolutionary modification of an embryonic GRN.

SUBMITTER: Ewe CK

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7093329 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Evolution and Developmental System Drift in the Endoderm Gene Regulatory Network of <i>Caenorhabditis</i> and Other Nematodes.

Ewe Chee Kiang CK Torres Cleuren Yamila N YN Rothman Joel H JH

Frontiers in cell and developmental biology 20200318

Developmental gene regulatory networks (GRNs) underpin metazoan embryogenesis and have undergone substantial modification to generate the tremendous variety of animal forms present on Earth today. The nematode <i>Caenorhabditis elegans</i> has been a central model for advancing many important discoveries in fundamental mechanistic biology and, more recently, has provided a strong base from which to explore the evolutionary diversification of GRN architecture and developmental processes in other ...[more]

PMID: 32258041

Similar Datasets

Project description:Proteins from thermophiles are generally more thermostable than their mesophilic homologs, but little is known about the evolutionary process driving these differences. Here we attempt to understand how the diverse thermostabilities of bacterial ribonuclease H1 (RNH) proteins evolved. RNH proteins from Thermus thermophilus (ttRNH) and Escherichia coli (ecRNH) share similar structures but differ in melting temperature (T(m)) by 20 °C. ttRNH's greater stability is caused in part by the presence of residual structure in the unfolded state, which results in a low heat capacity of unfolding (ΔCp) relative to ecRNH. We first characterized RNH proteins from a variety of extant bacteria and found that Tm correlates with the species' growth temperatures, consistent with environmental selection for stability. We then used ancestral sequence reconstruction to statistically infer evolutionary intermediates along lineages leading to ecRNH and ttRNH from their common ancestor, which existed approximately 3 billion years ago. Finally, we synthesized and experimentally characterized these intermediates. The shared ancestor has a melting temperature between those of ttRNH and ecRNH; the T(m)s of intermediate ancestors along the ttRNH lineage increased gradually over time, while the ecRNH lineage exhibited an abrupt drop in Tm followed by relatively little change. To determine whether the underlying mechanisms for thermostability correlate with the changes in T(m), we measured the thermodynamic basis for stabilization--ΔCp and other thermodynamic parameters--for each of the ancestors. We observed that, while the T(m) changes smoothly, the mechanistic basis for stability fluctuates over evolutionary time. Thus, even while overall stability appears to be strongly driven by selection, the proteins explored a wide variety of mechanisms of stabilization, a phenomenon we call "thermodynamic system drift." This suggests that even on lineages with strong selection to increase stability, proteins have wide latitude to explore sequence space, generating biophysical diversity and potentially opening new evolutionary pathways.

Dataset Information

Evolution and Developmental System Drift in the Endoderm Gene Regulatory Network of Caenorhabditis and Other Nematodes.

Publications

Evolution and Developmental System Drift in the Endoderm Gene Regulatory Network of <i>Caenorhabditis</i> and Other Nematodes.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets