The link between gene duplication and divergent patterns of gene expression across a complex life cycle.

ABSTRACT: The diversification of many lineages throughout natural history has frequently been associated with evolutionary changes in life cycle complexity. However, our understanding of the processes that facilitate differentiation in the morphologies and functions expressed by organisms throughout their life cycles is limited. Theory suggests that the expression of traits is decoupled across life stages, thus allowing for their evolutionary independence. Although trait decoupling between stages is well established, explanations of how said decoupling evolves have seldom been considered. Because the different phenotypes expressed by organisms throughout their life cycles are coded for by the same genome, trait decoupling must be mediated through divergence in gene expression between stages. Gene du

SUBMITTER: DuBose JG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11424080 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature