| Literature DB >> 28528721 |
Abstract
Animal development proceeds through the activity of genes and their cis-regulatory modules (CRMs) working together in sets of gene regulatory networks (GRNs). The emergence of species-specific traits and novel structures results from evolutionary changes in GRNs. Recent work in a wide variety of animal models, and particularly in insects, has started to reveal the modes and mechanisms of GRN evolution. I discuss here various aspects of GRN evolution and argue that developmental system drift (DSD), in which conserved phenotype is nevertheless a result of changed genetic interactions, should regularly be viewed from the perspective of GRN evolution. Advances in methods to discover related CRMs in diverse insect species, a critical requirement for detailed GRN characterization, are also described.Entities:
Keywords: DSD; GRN; cis-regulatory module; developmental system drift; enhancer evolution; evodevo
Mesh:
Year: 2017 PMID: 28528721 PMCID: PMC5608025 DOI: 10.1016/j.tig.2017.04.005
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Trends Genet ISSN: 0168-9525 Impact factor: 11.639