He Jiankui, Deem Michael W
Department of Physics & Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA.
Dev Biol. 2010 Jan 1;337(1):157-61. doi: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2009.09.038. Epub 2009 Sep 30.
An open question in animal evolution is why the phylum- and superphylum-level body plans have changed so little, while the class- and family-level body plans have changed so greatly since the early Cambrian. Davidson and Erwin (Davidson and Erwin, 2006; Erwin and Davidson, 2009) proposed that the hierarchical structure of gene regulatory networks leads to different observed evolutionary rates for terminal properties of the body plan versus major aspects of body plan morphology. Here, we calculated the speed of evolution of genes in these gene regulatory networks. We found that the genes which determine the phylum and superphylum characters evolve slowly, while those genes which determine the classes, families, and speciation evolve more rapidly. This result furnishes genetic support to the hypothesis that the hierarchical structure of developmental regulatory networks provides an organizing structure which guides the evolution of aspects of the body plan.
动物进化中的一个悬而未决的问题是，自寒武纪早期以来，门和超门水平的身体结构变化如此之小，而纲和科水平的身体结构却变化如此之大。戴维森和欧文（戴维森和欧文，2006年；欧文和戴维森，2009年）提出，基因调控网络的层次结构导致身体结构的终端特性与身体结构形态的主要方面呈现出不同的进化速率。在此，我们计算了这些基因调控网络中基因的进化速度。我们发现，决定门和超门特征的基因进化缓慢，而决定纲、科和物种形成的基因进化得更快。这一结果为发育调控网络的层次结构提供了一种组织结构这一假说提供了遗传学支持，该组织结构指导着身体结构各方面的进化。
