DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0408118101. Molecular origins of rapid and continuous morphological evolution

Molecular origins of rapid and continuous morphological evolution

10.1073/pnas.0408118101

Crossref journal-article

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (341)

Abstract

Mutations in cis-regulatory sequences have been implicated as being the predominant source of variation in morphological evolution. We offer a hypothesis that gene-associated tandem repeat expansions and contractions are a major source of phenotypic variation in evolution. Here, we describe a comparative genomic study of repetitive elements in developmental genes of 92 breeds of dogs. We find evidence for selection for divergence at coding repeat loci in the form of both elevated purity and extensive length polymorphism among different breeds. Variations in the number of repeats in the coding regions of the Alx-4 (aristaless-like 4) and Runx-2 (runt-related transcription factor 2) genes were quantitatively associated with significant differences in limb and skull morphology. We identified similar repeat length variation in the coding repeats of Runx-2 , Twist , and Dlx-2 in several other species. The high frequency and incremental effects of repeat length mutations provide molecular explanations for swift, yet topologically conservative morphological evolution.

Bibliography

Fondon, J. W., & Garner, H. R. (2004). Molecular origins of rapid and continuous morphological evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 101(52), 18058â18063.

Authors 2

John W. Fondon (first)
Harold R. Garner (additional)

References 36 Referenced 452

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Dates

Type	When
Created	20 years, 8 months ago (Dec. 28, 2004, 6:33 p.m.)
Deposited	3 years, 4 months ago (April 25, 2022, 10:34 p.m.)
Indexed	2 weeks, 5 days ago (Aug. 12, 2025, 5:41 p.m.)
Issued	20 years, 8 months ago (Dec. 13, 2004)
Published	20 years, 8 months ago (Dec. 13, 2004)
Published Online	20 years, 8 months ago (Dec. 13, 2004)
Published Print	20 years, 8 months ago (Dec. 28, 2004)

Funders 0

None

BibTeX

@article{Fondon_2004, title={Molecular origins of rapid and continuous morphological evolution}, volume={101}, ISSN={1091-6490}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0408118101}, DOI={10.1073/pnas.0408118101}, number={52}, journal={Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences}, publisher={Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences}, author={Fondon, John W. and Garner, Harold R.}, year={2004}, month=dec, pages={18058–18063} }

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