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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 12, 2025

Quantifying Abdominal Pigmentation in Drosophila melanogaster

Quantifying Abdominal Pigmentation in Drosophila melanogaster

Published on: June 1, 2017

Development shapes the evolutionary diversification of rodent stripe patterns.

Merlijn Staps¹, Pearson W Miller², Corina E Tarnita¹

¹Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

|October 23, 2023

Summary

Developmental mechanisms explain the evolution of diverse rodent stripe patterns. Small changes in developmental processes facilitate pattern diversification, while constraints limit evolvable patterns, revealing cryptic phylogenetic limitations.

Keywords:

color patterns developmental constraints pattern development pattern evolution self-organization

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Area of Science:

Evolutionary biology
Developmental biology
Zoology

Background:

Vertebrates exhibit diverse color patterns, but the role of developmental mechanisms in this diversification is unclear.
Rodents display varied longitudinal stripe patterns, suggesting independent evolution across species.

Purpose of the Study:

Investigate how developmental mechanisms influence the diversification of rodent stripe patterns.
Utilize insights from African striped mice to model pattern formation and evolution.

Main Methods:

Surveyed museum specimens to document rodent stripe pattern diversity.
Developed a model incorporating molecular and developmental data for stripe formation.
Analyzed how developmental processes can generate and constrain pattern evolution.

Main Results:

A single developmental process can produce diverse stripe patterns observed across rodent species.
Small modifications to the developmental process can explain evolutionary changes in pattern organization.
Developmental constraints on stripe positioning limit the range of possible patterns, imposing a hidden phylogenetic constraint.

Conclusions:

Developmental mechanisms play a dual role, facilitating and constraining pattern diversification in rodents.
Pattern formation models are valuable tools for understanding evolutionary patterns.
Rodent stripe pattern evolution is significantly shaped by underlying developmental processes.