Positive selection in nucleoporins challenges constraints on early expressed genes in Drosophila development.

ABSTRACT: Developmental conservation among related species is a common generalization known as von Baer's third law and implies that early stages of development are the most refractory to change. The "hourglass model" is an alternative view that proposes that middle stages are the most constrained during development. To investigate this issue, we undertook a genomic approach and provide insights into how natural selection operates on genes expressed during the first 24 h of Drosophila ontogeny in the six species of the melanogaster group for which whole genome sequences are available. Having studied the rate of evolution of more than 2,000 developmental genes, our results showed differential selective pressures at different moments of embryogenesis. In many Drosophila species, early zygotic genes ev

SUBMITTER: Mensch J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3845637 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature