Identifying the complex factors influencing evolutionary biology career interests among black and African American undergraduates
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13227-026-00266-w #EvoDevo
Identifying the complex factors influencing evolutionary biology career interests among black and African American undergraduates - Developmental Biology Advances
African American and Black individuals are significantly underrepresented in the field of evolutionary biology. This study employed a qualitative research
Integration and evolution of the cichlid pharyngeal skeleton: seeking the causes and consequences of trait covariation
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42120024/ #EvoDevo
Integration and evolution of the cichlid pharyngeal skeleton: seeking the causes and consequences of trait covariation - PubMed
The evolutionary success of animals has been facilitated by the expansion and diversification of serially homologous elements. The vertebrate pharyngeal skeleton exemplifies this process. Evolved from a uniform series of cartilaginous rods, different elements have evolved distinct shapes and functio …
Gene editing without a genome: generation of F0 CRISPR mutants in gastropod mollusc Crepidula fornicata
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13227-026-00267-9 #EvoDevo
Gene editing without a genome: generation of F0 CRISPR mutants in gastropod mollusc Crepidula fornicata - Developmental Biology Advances
Background CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing is a powerful tool to study gene function but to date is mostly applied in traditional model organisms. Due to specific challenges in spiralian genomics such as genome size, complexity, proportion of repetitive regions and high inter individual genome variation, applications of CRISPR-Cas9 in spiralian models have been limited. Within the Spiralia, molluscs are a strikingly diverse phylum with many unique gene family expansions and novelties, yet there are relatively few applications of CRISPR-Cas9 to unravel gene function in this group. Results We generated pax6 knockout (KO) F0 CRISPR-Cas9 mutants in the gastropod mollusc Crepidula fornicata using a de novo transcriptome to design single guide RNAs and genotyping primers. In lieu of an assembled genome, alignments with closely related species were used to determine putative intron–exon boundaries and successfully target gene editing to a specific exon of pax6 containing a paired domain. F0 pax6 KO mutants had an eye-loss phenotype. Successful CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing was confirmed genotypically using Sanger sequencing and Inference of CRISPR Edits (ICE) analysis. Conclusions The pax6 mutants developed in this study suggests the pax6 paired domain is specifically required for eye formation in gastropods and sheds light on the evolution of eye development in animals. pax6 is highly conserved and is required for eye development across metazoans, including the snail C. fornicata. The generation of F0 CRISPR-Cas9 KO mutants with a clear phenotype in a mollusc without an assembled genome enhances the applicability of CRISPR for functional genomics in non-traditional emerging model systems.
The evolution and development of LEAFY function
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42077098/ #EvoDevo
The evolution and development of LEAFY function - PubMed
Even though the canonical role of the transcription factor LEAFY (LFY) is in establishing the identity of angiosperm floral meristems, homologs of this gene are found across all land plants, predating the evolution of flowers. It has been hypothesized that the ancestral role of LFY was more broadly …
araucan regulates butterfly wing iridescence by coordinating scale structure and pigmentation
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42120037/ #EvoDevo
araucan regulates butterfly wing iridescence by coordinating scale structure and pigmentation - PubMed
Butterfly wings exhibit a remarkable diversity of structural iridescent colours, yet the genetic regulation of iridescence remains poorly understood. Here, we show that the Iroquois-complex transcription factor gene araucan plays a role in modulating wing scale iridescence in the common buckeye butt …
Synchrotron radiation micro-computed tomography of the small-spotted catshark embryonic development (Chondrichthyes: Scyliorhinus canicula)
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42096536/ #EvoDevo
Synchrotron radiation micro-computed tomography of the small-spotted catshark embryonic development (Chondrichthyes: Scyliorhinus canicula) - PubMed
We present a comprehensive dataset of 4D high-resolution SRµCT of the small-spotted catshark embryonic development. The dataset spans consecutive embryonic stages, allowing the reconstruction and morphometric analyses of tissues, organs, and structures, along with the tracking of their development. …
Whole genome DNA methylation atlas of the scallop Patinopecten yessoensis
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42056135/ #EvoDevo
Whole genome DNA methylation atlas of the scallop Patinopecten yessoensis - PubMed
DNA methylation, a fundamental epigenetic mechanism in eukaryotes, remains inadequately studied in the second-largest animal phylum, Mollusca. This gap persists due to a lack of comprehensive cross-tissue methylome data, which has hindered a deeper understanding of its regulatory roles in various or …
Holo-2bRAD: A Hologenomic Method for High-Resolution Analysis of Coral Microbiomes During Bleaching
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42075236/ #EvoDevo
Holo-2bRAD: A Hologenomic Method for High-Resolution Analysis of Coral Microbiomes During Bleaching - PubMed
Coral reefs are biodiversity hotspots increasingly threatened by climate-induced bleaching, yet profiling the coral holobiont-the host and its associated microbiota-remains technically challenging due to high host-DNA contamination (often >95%) and the lack of comprehensive reference databases. H …
Evolutionary origins and transcriptomic innovations of vertebrate Cajal-Retzius cells
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42025174/ #EvoDevo
Evolutionary origins and transcriptomic innovations of vertebrate Cajal-Retzius cells - PubMed
Evolutionary changes in cortical development were instrumental in the emergence of the mammalian neocortex. Cajal-Retzius cells, a transient neuron type discovered over a century ago, are critical players in the development of mammalian-specific cortical features such as inside-out neurogenesis. How …
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