[Gene duplications specific to the amphioxus lineage].
The union of the two complementary disciplines, developmental biology and evolutionary biology resulted in a new division of evolutionary developmental biology, namely "Evo-Devo". Recently, the research on this field has been fruitful in understanding the origin and development of vertebrates. The cephalochordate amphioxus, which remains in relatively invariant morphology since the divergence from the vertebrate lineage, is the closest living relative to vertebrates. The vertebrate-like simple body plan and preduplicative genome provide amphioxus genes the privilege to serve as key landmark to understand morphological evolution. However, the amphioxus genome has not escaped evolution. In this paper several examples of independent gene (Hox; Evx; HNF-3 and Calmodulin-like) duplications in the cephalochordate lineage were summarized. These particularities and oddities remind the fact that amphioxus is not an immediate ancestor of the vertebrates but 'only' the closest living relative to the ancestor, with a mix of prototypical and amphioxus-specific features in its genome.
Wang
Wei
W
College of Life Science, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China. wangwei_sz@eyou.com
Su
Bing
B
Wang
Yi-Quan
YQ
D000818:Animals; D002147:Calmodulin / Q000235:genetics; D002816:Chordata, Nonvertebrate / Q000145:classification / Q000196:embryology / Q000235:genetics*; D015509:Developmental Biology; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D051858:Forkhead Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics*; D020440:Gene Duplication; D005801:Genes, Homeobox; D016678:Genome; D051536:Hepatocyte Nuclear Factors / Q000235:genetics*; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny
D002147:Calmodulin; C437803:EvxA protein, amphioxus; D051858:Forkhead Transcription Factors; C105169:HNF-3 protein, Branchiostoma floridae; D051536:Hepatocyte Nuclear Factors; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins