title: A novel gene family controls species-specific morphological traits in Hydra.
abstract: Understanding the molecular events that underlie the evolution of morphological diversity is a major challenge in biology. Here, to identify genes whose expression correlates with species-specific morphologies, we compared transcriptomes of two closely related Hydra species. We find that species-specific differences in tentacle formation correlate with expression of a taxonomically restricted gene encoding a small secreted protein. We show that gain of function induces changes in morphology that mirror the phenotypic differences observed between species. These results suggest that "novel" genes may be involved in the generation of species-specific morphological traits.
authors.affiliation: Zoological Institute, Christian-Albrechts-University, Kiel, Germany.
authors.forename: Konstantin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Khalturin
authors.forename: Friederike
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Anton-Erxleben
authors.forename: Sylvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sassmann
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wittlieb
authors.forename: Georg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hemmrich
authors.forename: Thomas C G
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Bosch
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D015870:Gene Expression; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D020868:Gene Silencing; D006829:Hydra / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D017403:In Situ Hybridization; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010641:Phenotype; D010802:Phylogeny; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D013045:Species Specificity; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D014157:Transcription Factors