Evolution of spatial expression pattern
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 26, 2026

Temporal Ordering of Dynamic Expression Data from Detailed Spatial Expression Maps
Published on: February 9, 2017
Louise J Johnson1, John F Y Brookfield
1Institute of Genetics, University of Nottingham, Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham NG7 2UH, UK.
Abstract:
How can complex patterns of gene expression evolve? Understanding the near-precise repeatability of morphology created by animal development, through the interactions between morphogens and networks of transcription factors, is one of the most difficult outstanding problems in developmental biology. Spatial patterns are created in part by interactions between transcription factors and their DNA targets. Here we simulate the evolution of such interactions to compare the success and the evolvability of simple and complex gene networks in reaching a desired spatial pattern of expression along an embryo. We find that adding more genes to a network makes only a slight difference to evolvability. Expression patterns can evolve within a few hundred mutational events, and some simulations show partial redundancy. However, there is wide variation between simulations, with both simple and complex networks being liable to reach evolutionary "dead ends" that can only be escaped by means of an advantageous combination of individually deleterious mutations.
Related Concept Videos
Position-effect Variegation
Evolution of New Traits in Microbes
Cis-regulatory Sequences
Determination
Reporter Genes
Commonly used reporter...
The Evidence for Evolution
