刺胞动物与动物界的祖先遗传复杂性

Cnidarians and ancestral genetic complexity in the animal kingdom.

作者信息

Miller David J, Ball Eldon E, Technau Ulrich

机构信息

Comparative Genomics Centre, Molecular Sciences Building 21, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.

出版信息

Trends Genet. 2005 Oct;21(10):536-9. doi: 10.1016/j.tig.2005.08.002.

DOI:10.1016/j.tig.2005.08.002

PMID:16098631

Abstract

Eleven of the twelve recognized wingless (Wnt) subfamilies are represented in the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis, indicating that this developmentally important gene family was already fully diversified in the common ancestor of 'higher' animals. In deuterostomes, although duplications have occurred, no novel subfamilies of Wnts have evolved. By contrast, the protostomes Drosophila and Caenorhabditis have lost half of the ancestral Wnts. This pattern -- loss of genes from an ancestrally complex state -- might be more important in animal evolution than previously recognized.

摘要

在海葵星状海葵（Nematostella vectensis）中代表了12个公认的无翼（Wnt）亚家族中的11个，这表明这个在发育中具有重要意义的基因家族在“高等”动物的共同祖先中就已经完全分化了。在脊椎动物中，虽然发生了基因复制，但没有进化出新的Wnt亚家族。相比之下，原口动物果蝇和秀丽隐杆线虫已经失去了一半的祖先Wnt基因。这种模式——从祖先复杂状态中丢失基因——在动物进化中可能比以前认识到的更为重要。