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Related Concept Videos

Convergent Evolution01:54

Convergent Evolution

Evolution shapes the features of organisms over time, ensuring that they are suited for the environments in which they live. Sometimes, selection pressure leads to the rise of similar but unrelated adaptations in organisms with no recent common ancestors, a process known as convergent evolution.
Gene Duplication and Divergence02:37

Gene Duplication and Divergence

The seminal work of Ohno in 1970 popularized the idea of gene duplication and divergence. DNA sequence comparison studies reveal that a large portion of the genes in bacteria, archaebacteria, and eukaryotes was  generated by gene duplication and divergence, indicating its critical role in evolution.
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Around 80 million years ago, the human and mice lineages diverged from the common ancestor. During the course of evolution, the ancestral chromosome underwent...

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Conserved regulatory architecture underlies parallel genetic changes and convergent phenotypic evolution.

Nicolás Frankel1, Shu Wang, David L Stern

  • 1Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|December 1, 2012
PubMed
Summary

Convergent evolution in Drosophila species resulted from parallel changes in noncoding DNA that regulate the shavenbaby gene. These cis-regulatory modifications independently shaped similar phenotypes in distinct lineages.

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Genetics
  • Developmental biology

Background:

  • Convergent evolution describes the independent evolution of similar traits in different species.
  • Morphological convergence can arise from changes in orthologous genes, often involving cis-regulatory elements.
  • Understanding cis-regulatory evolution is crucial for explaining convergent phenotypes, but is often limited by knowledge of gene regulatory architecture.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the genetic underpinnings of precise phenotypic convergence between Drosophila sechellia and Drosophila ezoana.
  • To examine the role of cis-regulatory evolution in the shavenbaby (svb) gene in driving parallel phenotypic changes.
  • To compare the cis-regulatory architecture of svb between these species to understand conserved and divergent regulatory mechanisms.

Main Methods:

  • Comparative analysis of the cis-regulatory architecture of the shavenbaby (svb) gene in Drosophila sechellia and Drosophila ezoana.
  • Examination of the expression patterns of orthologous enhancers in both species.
  • Correlation of observed expression changes with phenotypic convergence.

Main Results:

  • The large-scale cis-regulatory architecture of the svb gene is conserved between D. sechellia and D. ezoana.
  • Orthologous enhancers in D. ezoana have evolved expression patterns that mirror those in D. sechellia.
  • These parallel changes in enhancer activity correlate precisely with the convergent phenotypes observed in both species.

Conclusions:

  • Phenotypic convergence between D. sechellia and D. ezoana is driven by parallel cis-regulatory evolution of the svb gene.
  • Multiple noncoding changes in transcriptional enhancers occurred independently in each lineage, leading to similar phenotypic outcomes.
  • This study highlights the significant role of cis-regulatory evolution in generating convergent phenotypes through parallel genetic modifications.