Inter-embryo gene expression variability recapitulates the hourglass pattern of evo-devo.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The evolution of embryological development has long been characterized by deep conservation. In animal development, the phylotypic stage in mid-embryogenesis is more conserved than either early or late stages among species within the same phylum. Hypotheses to explain this hourglass pattern have focused on purifying the selection of gene regulation. Here, we propose an alternative-genes are regulated in different ways at different stages and have different intrinsic capacities to respond to perturbations on gene expression.

Results

To eliminate the influence of natural selection, we quantified the expression variability of isogenetic single embryo transcriptomes throughout fly Drosophila melanogaster embryogenesis. We found that the expression variability is lower

SUBMITTER: Liu J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7502200 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature