Project description:We compare fore- and mid-brain transcriptomes of reproductive males in monogamous and non-monogamous species pairs of Peromyscus mice, Microtus voles, parid songbirds, dendrobatid frogs, and Xenotilapia species of cichlid fishes. Our study provides evidence of a universal transcriptomic mechanism underlying the evolution of monogamy in vertebrates.
Project description:Transcriptomic analyses of renal allograft biopsies reveal conserved rejection signatures and molecular pathways. GEO SuperSeries. This dataset is part of the TransQST collection.
Project description:The synarcual is a specialized adaptation of the anterior axial skeleton comprising a putatively fused array of vertebral elements characteristic of jawed vertebrate (gnathostome) clades such as batoid and chimaeroid chondrichthyans, as well as a fossil group known as the placoderms. Placoderms represent the phylogenetically most basal jawed vertebrates and the presence of a synarcual in these and chondrichthyans may suggest a conserved vertebral type for jawed vertebrates, predating the divergence of stem and crown gnathostomes. Alternatively, synarcuals may have evolved independently in these lineages, exhibiting a remarkable case of morphological convergence. We investigated the early development of the cervicothoracic synarcual of an emerging model chondrichthyan, the Little skate Leucoraja erinacea, by combining x-ray computed tomography, classical histology, and a de novo transcriptome assembly for two developmental stages of the skate synarcual and post-synarcual axial skeletal elements.
Project description:he neural crest is an embryonic stem cell population unique to vertebrates whose expansion and diversification are thought to have promoted vertebrate evolution by enabling emergence of novel cell types and structures like jaws and peripheral ganglia2. While basal vertebrates have sensory ganglia, convention has it that trunk sympathetic chain ganglia arose only in jawed vertebrates. In contrast, here we report the presence of trunk sympathetic neurons in the sea lamprey, Petromyzon marinus, an extant jawless vertebrate. These neurons arise from sympathoblasts near the dorsal aorta that undergo noradrenergic specification via a transcriptional program homologous to that described in gnathostomes. Lamprey sympathoblasts populate the extracardiac space and extend along the length of the trunk in bilateral streams, expressing the catecholamine biosynthetic pathway enzymes tyrosine hydroxylase and dopamine -hydroxylase. CM-DiI lineage tracing analysis further confirmed that these cells derive from the trunk neural crest. RNA-seq of isolated ammocete trunk sympathoblasts revealed gene profiles characteristic of sympathetic neuron function. Our findings challenge prevailing dogma which posits that sympathetic ganglia are a gnathostome innovation, instead suggesting that a late-developing rudimentary sympathetic nervous system may have been characteristic of the earliest vertebrates.