@article{Wang_2020,

title = {Genetic basis for divergence in developmental gene expression in two closely related sea urchins},

author = {Lingyu Wang and Jennifer W. Israel and Allison Edgar and Rudolf A. Raff and Elizabeth C. Raff and Maria Byrne and Gregory A. Wray},

url = {https://doi.org/doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-1165-y},

doi = {10.1038/s41559-020-1165-y},

year  = {2020},

date = {2020-04-01},

urldate = {2020-04-01},

journal = {Nature Ecology \& Evolution},

volume = {4},

number = {6},

pages = {831\textendash840},

publisher = {Springer Science and Business Media LLC},

abstract = {The genetic basis for divergence in developmental gene expression among species is poorly understood, despite growing evidence that such changes underlie many interesting traits. Here we quantify transcription in hybrids of Heliocidaris tuberculata and Heliocidaris erythrogramma, two closely related sea urchins with highly divergent developmental gene expression and life histories. We find that most expression differences between species result from genetic influences that affect one stage of development, indicating limited pleiotropic consequences for most mutations that contribute to divergence in gene expression. Activation of zygotic transcription is broadly delayed in H. erythrogramma, the species with the derived life history, despite its overall faster premetamorphic development. Altered expression of several terminal differentiation genes associated with the derived larval morphology of H. erythrogramma is based largely on differences in the expression or function of their upstream regulators, providing insights into the genetic basis for the evolution of key life history traits.},

keywords = {developmental biology, Evolution, evolutionary genetics, molecular evolution},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Edgar_2019c,

title = {Evolution of abbreviated development in Heliocidaris erythrogramma dramatically re-wired the highly conserved sea urchin developmental gene regulatory network to decouple signaling center function from ultimate fate},

author = {Allison Edgar and Maria Byrne and David R McClay and Gregory A Wray},

url = {https://doi.org/10.1101/712216 },

doi = {10.1101/712216},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-07-01},

urldate = {2019-07-01},

publisher = {Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory},

abstract = {Developmental gene regulatory networks (GRNs) describe the interactions among gene products that drive the differential transcriptional and cell regulatory states that pattern the embryo and specify distinct cell fates. GRNs are often deeply conserved, but whether this is the product of constraint inherent to the network structure or stabilizing selection remains unclear. We have constructed the first formal GRN for early development in Heliocidaris erythrogramma, a species with dramatically accelerated, direct development. This life history switch has important ecological consequences, arose rapidly, and has evolved independently many times in echinoderms, suggesting it is a product of selection. We find that H. erythrogramma exhibits dramatic differences in GRN topology compared with ancestral, indirect-developing sea urchins. In particular, the GRN sub-circuit that directs the early and autonomous commitment of skeletogenic cell precursors in indirect developers appears to be absent in H. erythrogramma, a particularly striking change in relation to both the prior conservation of this sub-circuit and the key role that these cells play ancestrally in early development as the embryonic signaling center. These results show that even highly conserved molecular mechanisms of early development can be substantially reconfigured in a relatively short evolutionary time span, suggesting that selection rather than constraint is responsible for the striking conservation of the GRN among other sea urchins.},

keywords = {developmental biology},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}