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Perspectives on Gene Regulatory Network Evolution

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57 Scopus citations

Abstract

Animal development proceeds through the activity of genes and their cis-regulatory modules (CRMs) working together in sets of gene regulatory networks (GRNs). The emergence of species-specific traits and novel structures results from evolutionary changes in GRNs. Recent work in a wide variety of animal models, and particularly in insects, has started to reveal the modes and mechanisms of GRN evolution. I discuss here various aspects of GRN evolution and argue that developmental system drift (DSD), in which conserved phenotype is nevertheless a result of changed genetic interactions, should regularly be viewed from the perspective of GRN evolution. Advances in methods to discover related CRMs in diverse insect species, a critical requirement for detailed GRN characterization, are also described.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)436-447
Number of pages12
JournalTrends in Genetics
Volume33
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2017

Keywords

  • cis-regulatory module
  • developmental system drift
  • DSD
  • enhancer evolution
  • evodevo
  • GRN

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