title: Predicting Ancestral Segmentation Phenotypes from Drosophila to Anopheles Using In Silico Evolution.
abstract: Molecular evolution is an established technique for inferring gene homology but regulatory DNA turns over so rapidly that inference of ancestral networks is often impossible. In silico evolution is used to compute the most parsimonious path in regulatory space for anterior-posterior patterning linking two Dipterian species. The expression pattern of gap genes has evolved between Drosophila (fly) and Anopheles (mosquito), yet one of their targets, eve, has remained invariant. Our model predicts that stripe 5 in fly disappears and a new posterior stripe is created in mosquito, thus eve stripe modules 3+7 and 4+6 in fly are homologous to 3+6 and 4+5 in mosquito. We can place Clogmia on this evolutionary pathway and it shares the mosquito homologies. To account for the evolution of the other pair-rule genes in the posterior we have to assume that the ancestral Dipterian utilized a dynamic method to phase those genes in relation to eve.
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, McGill University, Ernest Rutherford Physics Building, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Jeremy B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Rothschild
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, McGill University, Ernest Rutherford Physics Building, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Panagiotis
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tsimiklis
authors.affiliation: Center for Studies in Physics and Biology, The Rockefeller University, New York, New York, United States of America.
authors.forename: Eric D
authors.initials: ED
authors.lastname: Siggia
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, McGill University, Ernest Rutherford Physics Building, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: François
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000852:Anopheles / Q000235:genetics*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D020690:GTPase-Activating Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D017403:In Situ Hybridization; D010802:Phylogeny
chemical_list: D020690:GTPase-Activating Proteins