Evolution of developmental bias explains divergent patterns of phenotypic evolution in two nematode clades.

ABSTRACT: Rates of phenotypic evolution vary across traits, and these evolutionary patterns themselves evolve. Understanding how development contributes to such patterns remains a challenge because it requires large-scale measurement of phenotypic variation resulting from random mutations across multiple species. Using the experimentally tractable system of nematode vulval development, we quantified the evolution and mutational sensitivity of six cell fates across two clades. First, we find that the cell whose fate evolves fastest is distinct for each clade: P3.p in Caenorhabditis and P4.p in Oscheius. Second, we show that this evolutionary pattern matches the pattern of variation within species of each clade. Third, we find that within each clade, the differential effect on each cell

SUBMITTER: Picao-Osorio J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12403097 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature