De Robertis E M
Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Biological Chemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1662, USA.
Cell. 2008 Jan 25;132(2):185-95. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2008.01.003.
Most animals evolved from a common ancestor, Urbilateria, which already had in place the developmental genetic networks for shaping body plans. Comparative genomics has revealed rather unexpectedly that many of the genes present in bilaterian animal ancestors were lost by individual phyla during evolution. Reconstruction of the archetypal developmental genomic tool-kit present in Urbilateria will help to elucidate the contribution of gene loss and developmental constraints to the evolution of animal body plans.
大多数动物都从一个共同祖先——原肠胚动物进化而来,原肠胚动物已经具备了塑造身体结构的发育遗传网络。比较基因组学相当意外地揭示,两侧对称动物祖先中存在的许多基因在进化过程中被各个门类丢失了。重建原肠胚动物中存在的原型发育基因组工具包,将有助于阐明基因丢失和发育限制对动物身体结构进化的作用。