Adaptive Evolution of Animal Proteins over Development: Support for the Darwin Selection Opportunity Hypothesis of Evo-Devo.

ABSTRACT: A driving hypothesis of evolutionary developmental biology is that animal morphological diversity is shaped both by adaptation and by developmental constraints. Here, we have tested Darwin's "selection opportunity" hypothesis, according to which high evolutionary divergence in late development is due to strong positive selection. We contrasted it to a "developmental constraint" hypothesis, according to which late development is under relaxed negative selection. Indeed, the highest divergence between species, both at the morphological and molecular levels, is observed late in embryogenesis and postembryonically. To distinguish between adaptation and relaxation hypotheses, we investigated the evidence of positive selection on protein-coding genes in relation to their expression over developm

SUBMITTER: Liu J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6278863 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature