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Paleogenomics of echinoids reveals an ancient origin for the double-negative specification of micromeres in sea urchins

Paleogenomics of echinoids reveals an ancient origin for the double-negative specification of micromeres in sea urchins
Paleogenomics of echinoids reveals an ancient origin for the double-negative specification of micromeres in sea urchins
Establishing a timeline for the evolution of novelties is a common, unifying goal at the intersection of evolutionary and developmental biology. Analyses of gene regulatory networks (GRNs) provide the ability to understand the underlying genetic and developmental mechanisms responsible for the origin of morphological structures both in the development of an individual and across entire evolutionary lineages. Accurately dating GRN novelties, thereby establishing a timeline for GRN evolution, is necessary to answer questions about the rate at which GRNs and their subcircuits evolve, and to tie their evolution to paleoenvironmental and paleoecological changes. Paleogenomics unites the fossil record and all aspects of deep time, with modern genomics and developmental biology to understand the evolution of genomes in evolutionary time. Recent work on the regulatory genomic basis of development in cidaroid echinoids, sand dollars, heart urchins, and other nonmodel echinoderms provides an ideal dataset with which to explore GRN evolution in a comparative framework. Using divergence time estimation and ancestral state reconstructions, we have determined the age of the double-negative gate (DNG), the subcircuit which specifies micromeres and skeletogenic cells in Strongylocentrotus purpuratus. We have determined that the DNG has likely been used for euechinoid echinoid micromere specification since at least the Late Triassic. The innovation of the DNG thus predates the burst of post-Paleozoic echinoid morphological diversification that began in the Early Jurassic. Paleogenomics has wide applicability for the integration of deep time and molecular developmental data, and has wide utility in rigorously establishing timelines for GRN evolution.
evolution, evo-devo, euechinoid, cidaroid, gene regulatory networks
0027-8424
5870-5877
Thompson, Jeffrey R.
d2c9b7bb-3e33-4918-97c8-0c36e7af30a4
Erkenbrack, Eric M.
5e52102d-6135-4231-a33f-4933dc070f19
Hinman, Veronica F.
30fac633-6a7a-42e0-a524-3e5aee795aaf
McCauley, Brenna S.
6c43b2a3-389c-4923-9294-172f08d1e037
Petsios, Elizabeth
a5cdbcb2-f8b8-4ee4-8e75-8fa9271a08d6
Bottjer, David J.
bfaed1cd-cbf2-4cae-9812-5dfdf44b3f0b
Thompson, Jeffrey R.
d2c9b7bb-3e33-4918-97c8-0c36e7af30a4
Erkenbrack, Eric M.
5e52102d-6135-4231-a33f-4933dc070f19
Hinman, Veronica F.
30fac633-6a7a-42e0-a524-3e5aee795aaf
McCauley, Brenna S.
6c43b2a3-389c-4923-9294-172f08d1e037
Petsios, Elizabeth
a5cdbcb2-f8b8-4ee4-8e75-8fa9271a08d6
Bottjer, David J.
bfaed1cd-cbf2-4cae-9812-5dfdf44b3f0b

Thompson, Jeffrey R., Erkenbrack, Eric M., Hinman, Veronica F., McCauley, Brenna S., Petsios, Elizabeth and Bottjer, David J. (2017) Paleogenomics of echinoids reveals an ancient origin for the double-negative specification of micromeres in sea urchins. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 114 (23), 5870-5877. (doi:10.1073/pnas.1610603114).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Establishing a timeline for the evolution of novelties is a common, unifying goal at the intersection of evolutionary and developmental biology. Analyses of gene regulatory networks (GRNs) provide the ability to understand the underlying genetic and developmental mechanisms responsible for the origin of morphological structures both in the development of an individual and across entire evolutionary lineages. Accurately dating GRN novelties, thereby establishing a timeline for GRN evolution, is necessary to answer questions about the rate at which GRNs and their subcircuits evolve, and to tie their evolution to paleoenvironmental and paleoecological changes. Paleogenomics unites the fossil record and all aspects of deep time, with modern genomics and developmental biology to understand the evolution of genomes in evolutionary time. Recent work on the regulatory genomic basis of development in cidaroid echinoids, sand dollars, heart urchins, and other nonmodel echinoderms provides an ideal dataset with which to explore GRN evolution in a comparative framework. Using divergence time estimation and ancestral state reconstructions, we have determined the age of the double-negative gate (DNG), the subcircuit which specifies micromeres and skeletogenic cells in Strongylocentrotus purpuratus. We have determined that the DNG has likely been used for euechinoid echinoid micromere specification since at least the Late Triassic. The innovation of the DNG thus predates the burst of post-Paleozoic echinoid morphological diversification that began in the Early Jurassic. Paleogenomics has wide applicability for the integration of deep time and molecular developmental data, and has wide utility in rigorously establishing timelines for GRN evolution.

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More information

Published date: 5 June 2017
Keywords: evolution, evo-devo, euechinoid, cidaroid, gene regulatory networks

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 473173
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/473173
ISSN: 0027-8424
PURE UUID: 36444602-14a9-41fa-8651-38e354f6f2fe
ORCID for Jeffrey R. Thompson: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-3485-172X

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Date deposited: 11 Jan 2023 17:45
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 04:15

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Contributors

Author: Jeffrey R. Thompson ORCID iD
Author: Eric M. Erkenbrack
Author: Veronica F. Hinman
Author: Brenna S. McCauley
Author: Elizabeth Petsios
Author: David J. Bottjer

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