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Timing the Developmental Origins of Mammalian Limb Diversity
Author(s) -
Sears Karen,
Maier Jennifer,
Behringer Richard,
Cretekos Chris,
Rasweiler John,
Zhong Sheng,
Rapti Zoi
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.29.1_supplement.349.1
Subject(s) - limb development , biology , evolutionary biology , hindlimb , transcriptome , robustness (evolution) , population , lower limb , gene , neuroscience , anatomy , gene expression , genetics , medicine , surgery , environmental health
From bat wings to whale flippers, the evolution of diverse limb forms has enabled mammals to infiltrate almost every habitat. We seek to determine the developmental processes that have been modified to produce new limb forms, and the degree to which the nature of these processes predisposes the evolution of some limb forms instead of others. To pursue these goals we quantified the transcriptome and morphology of developing bat, mouse, pig and opossum limbs. Results suggest that limb outgrowth is initially conserved and then diverges, consistent with earliest limb outgrowth being developmentally constrained. To test this hypothesis we built and perturbed gene interaction networks for early (EN) and late limb development, and found that the EN is more robust. We then quantified levels of the same genes within populations and among species, and found that they vary less at earlier developmental stages. These results suggest that EN robustness buffers population‐level variation in gene expression early in limb development, and constrains the evolution of early limb development among species.