01.04.2015 Views

The Questions of Developmental Biology

The Questions of Developmental Biology

The Questions of Developmental Biology

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

<strong>The</strong> search for the Urbilaterian ancestor<br />

It is doubtful that we will find a fossilized representative <strong>of</strong> the ancestral phylum that<br />

gave rise to both the deuterostomes and the protostomes. Such a hypothetical animal is sometimes<br />

called the Urbilaterian ancestor or the PDA (protostome-deuterostome ancestor). Since such an<br />

animal probably had neither a bony endoskeleton (a deuterostome trait) nor a hard exoskeleton<br />

(characteristic <strong>of</strong> ecdysozoans), it would not fossilize well. However, we can undertake what<br />

Sean Carroll (quoted in DiSilvestro 1997) has called "paleontology without fossils." <strong>The</strong> logic <strong>of</strong><br />

this approach is to find homologous genes that are performing the same functions in both a<br />

deuterostome (usually a chick or a mouse) and a protostome (generally an arthropod such as<br />

Drosophila). Many such genes have been found (Table 22.1), and their similarities <strong>of</strong> structure<br />

and function in protostomes and deuterostomes make it likely that these genes emerged in an<br />

animal that is ancestral to both groups.<br />

Table 22.1. <strong>Developmental</strong> regulatory genes conserved between protostomes and deuterostomes<br />

Gene Function Distribution<br />

achaete-scute group Cell fate specification Cnidarians, Drosophila,<br />

vertebrates<br />

Bcl2/Drob-1/ced9 Programmed cell death Drosophila, nematodes,<br />

vertebrates<br />

Caudal Posterior differentiation Drosophila, vertebrates<br />

delta/Xdelta-1 Primary neurogenesis Drosophila, Xenopus<br />

Distal-less/DLX<br />

Appendage formation (proximal-distal<br />

axis)<br />

Numerous phyla <strong>of</strong> protostomes<br />

and deuterostomes<br />

Dorsal/NFB Immune response Drosophila, vertebrates<br />

forkhead/Fox Terminal differentiation Drosophila, vertebrates<br />

Fringe/radical fringe Formation <strong>of</strong> limb margin (apical<br />

Drosophila, chick<br />

ectodermal ridge in vertebrates)<br />

Hac-1/Apaf/ced 4 Programmed cell death Drosophila, nematodes,<br />

vertebrates<br />

Hox complex Anterior-posterior patterning Widespread among metazoans<br />

lin-12/Notch Cell fate specification C. elegans, Drosophila,<br />

vertebrates<br />

Otx-1, Otx-2/Otd, Emx-1, Anterior patterning, cephalization Drosophila, vertebrates<br />

Emx-2/ems<br />

Pax6/eyeless; Eyes Anterior CNS/eye regulation<br />

Drosophila, vertebrates<br />

absent/eya<br />

Polycomb group<br />

Controls Hox expression/ cell Drosophila, vertebrates<br />

differentiation<br />

Netrins, Split proteins, and<br />

Axon guidance<br />

Drosophila, vertebrates<br />

their receptors<br />

RAS Signal transduction Drosophila, vertebrates<br />

sine occulus/Six3 Anterior CNS/eye pattern formation Drosophila, vertebrates<br />

sog/chordin, dpp/BMP4 Dorsal-ventral patterning, neurogenesis Drosophila, Xenopus<br />

tinman/Nkx 2-5 Heart/blood vascular system Drosophila, mouse<br />

vnd, msh Neural tube patterning Drosophila, vertebrates

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!