Molecular origins of rapid and continuous morphological evolution Export

@article{citeulike:814640, abstract = {Mutations in cis-regulatory sequences have been implicated as being the predominant source of variation in morphological evolution. We offer a hypothesis that gene-associated tandem repeat expansions and contractions are a major source of phenotypic variation in evolution. Here, we describe a comparative genomic study of repetitive elements in developmental genes of 92 breeds of dogs. We find evidence for selection for divergence at coding repeat loci in the form of both elevated purity and extensive length polymorphism among different breeds. Variations in the number of repeats in the coding regions of the Alx-4 (aristaless-like 4) and Runx-2 (runt-related transcription factor 2) genes were quantitatively associated with significant differences in limb and skull morphology. We identified similar repeat length variation in the coding repeats of Runx-2, Twist, and Dlx-2 in several other species. The high frequency and incremental effects of repeat length mutations provide molecular explanations for swift, yet topologically conservative morphological evolution. 10.1073/pnas.0408118101}, author = {Fondon, John W. and Garner, Harold R.}, citeulike-article-id = {814640}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0408118101}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://www.pnas.org/content/101/52/18058.abstract}, citeulike-linkout-2 = {http://www.pnas.org/content/101/52/18058.full.pdf}, citeulike-linkout-3 = {http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/101/52/18058}, citeulike-linkout-4 = {http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15596718}, citeulike-linkout-5 = {http://www.hubmed.org/display.cgi?uids=15596718}, day = {28}, doi = {10.1073/pnas.0408118101}, journal = {PNAS}, keywords = {evo\_devo}, month = {December}, number = {52}, pages = {18058--18063}, posted-at = {2008-08-08 17:20:57}, priority = {2}, title = {Molecular origins of rapid and continuous morphological evolution}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0408118101}, volume = {101}, year = {2004} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:814640 L3 - citeulike-article-id:814640 N2 - Mutations in cis-regulatory sequences have been implicated as being the predominant source of variation in morphological evolution. We offer a hypothesis that gene-associated tandem repeat expansions and contractions are a major source of phenotypic variation in evolution. Here, we describe a comparative genomic study of repetitive elements in developmental genes of 92 breeds of dogs. We find evidence for selection for divergence at coding repeat loci in the form of both elevated purity and extensive length polymorphism among different breeds. Variations in the number of repeats in the coding regions of the Alx-4 (aristaless-like 4) and Runx-2 (runt-related transcription factor 2) genes were quantitatively associated with significant differences in limb and skull morphology. We identified similar repeat length variation in the coding repeats of Runx-2, Twist, and Dlx-2 in several other species. The high frequency and incremental effects of repeat length mutations provide molecular explanations for swift, yet topologically conservative morphological evolution. 10.1073/pnas.0408118101 IS - 52 JF - PNAS EP - 18063 TI - Molecular origins of rapid and continuous morphological evolution VL - 101 SP - 18058 KW - evo_devo AU - Fondon, John AU - Garner, Harold PY - 2004/12/28/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0408118101 ER -