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Evolutionary developmental biology and morphology

Section edited by David Ferrier

This section considers studies in the evolution of development and developmental processes, and into morphological evolution.

Page 1 of 3

  1. Content type: Research article

    Ependymins were originally defined as fish-specific secreted glycoproteins involved in central nervous system plasticity and memory formation. Subsequent research revealed that these proteins represent a fish-...

    Authors: Carmel McDougall, Michael J. Hammond, Simon C. Dailey, Ildiko M. L. Somorjai, Scott F. Cummins and Bernard M. Degnan

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:182

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  2. Content type: Research article

    One of the best studied developmental processes is the Drosophila segmentation cascade. However, this cascade is generally considered to be highly derived and unusual, with segments being patterned simultaneously...

    Authors: Tzach Auman and Ariel D. Chipman

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:178

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  3. Content type: Research article

    The axial skeleton consists of repeating units (vertebrae) that are integrated through their development and evolution. Unlike most tetrapods, vertebrae in the mammalian trunk are subdivided into distinct thor...

    Authors: Katrina E. Jones, Lorena Benitez, Kenneth D. Angielczyk and Stephanie E. Pierce

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:172

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  4. Content type: Research article

    Nucleoplasmin 2 (npm2) is an essential maternal-effect gene that mediates early embryonic events through its function as a histone chaperone that remodels chromatin. Recently, two npm2 (npm2a and npm2b) genes hav...

    Authors: Caroline T. Cheung, Jérémy Pasquier, Aurélien Bouleau, Thaovi Nguyen, Franck Chesnel, Yann Guiguen and Julien Bobe

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:167

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  5. Content type: Research article

    Opsins are G protein-coupled receptors used for both visual and non-visual photoreception, and these proteins evolutionarily date back to the base of the bilaterians. In the current sequencing age, phylogenomi...

    Authors: Elijah K. Lowe, Anders L. Garm, Esther Ullrich-Lüter, Claudia Cuomo and Maria I. Arnone

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:168

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  6. Content type: Research article

    Micro RNAs (miRNAs) and piwi interacting RNAs (piRNAs), along with the more ancient eukaryotic endogenous small interfering RNAs (endo-siRNAs) constitute the principal components of the RNA interference (RNAi)...

    Authors: Andrew D. Calcino, Selene L. Fernandez-Valverde, Ryan J. Taft and Bernard M. Degnan

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:160

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  7. Content type: Research article

    The males of some sepsid species (Sepsidae: Diptera) have abdominal appendages that are remarkable in several ways. They are sexually dimorphic, have a complex evolutionary history of gain and loss, and can be...

    Authors: Dacotah Melicher, Kathy F Y Su, Rudolf Meier and Julia H Bowsher

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:151

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  8. Content type: Research article

    Sabellarids, also known as honeycomb or sandcastle worms, when building their tubes, produce chemical signals (free fatty acids) that are responsible for larval settlement and the formation of three-dimensiona...

    Authors: Conrad Helm, Michael J Bok, Pat Hutchings, Elena Kupriyanova and María Capa

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:149

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  9. Content type: Research article

    The molecular bases explaining the diversity of dental tissue mineralization across gnathostomes are still poorly understood. Odontodes, such as teeth and body denticles, are serial structures that develop thr...

    Authors: Sébastien Enault, David Muñoz, Paul Simion, Stéphanie Ventéo, Jean-Yves Sire, Sylvain Marcellini and Mélanie Debiais-Thibaud

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:127

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  11. Content type: Research article

    Understanding how phenotypic variation scales from individuals, through populations, up to species, and how it relates to genetic and environmental factors, is essential for deciphering the evolutionary mechan...

    Authors: Antigoni Kaliontzopoulou, Catarina Pinho and Fernando Martínez-Freiría

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:124

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  12. Content type: Research article

    Mesoderm is generally considered to be a germ layer that is unique to Bilateria, and it develops into diverse tissues, including muscle, and in the case of vertebrates, the skeleton and notochord. Studies on v...

    Authors: Tzu-Pei Fan, Hsiu-Chi Ting, Jr-Kai Yu and Yi-Hsien Su

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:120

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  13. Content type: Research article

    Hirsutella Pat genus, the asexual morphs of the Ophiocordyceps Sung, is globally distributed entomopathogenic fungi, which infect a variety of arthropods, mites and nematodes. The fungal species also have shown p...

    Authors: Jiaojiao Qu, Yeming Zhou, Jianping Yu, Jian Zhang, Yanfeng Han and Xiao Zou

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:111

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  14. Content type: Research article

    Cyclostome bryozoans are an ancient group of marine colonial suspension-feeders comprising approximately 700 extant species. Previous morphological studies are mainly restricted to skeletal characters whereas ...

    Authors: Thomas F. Schwaha, Stephan Handschuh, Andrew N. Ostrovsky and Andreas Wanninger

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:92

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  15. Content type: Research article

    Sox (Sry-related high-mobility-group box) genes represent important factors in animal development. Relatively little, however, is known about the embryonic expression patterns and thus possible function(s) of Sox...

    Authors: Ralf Janssen, Emil Andersson, Ellinor Betnér, Sifra Bijl, Will Fowler, Lars Höök, Jake Leyhr, Alexander Mannelqvist, Virginia Panara, Kate Smith and Sydney Tiemann

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:88

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  16. Content type: Research article

    Sloths are one of only two exceptions to the mammalian ‘rule of seven’ vertebrae in the neck. As a striking case of breaking the evolutionary constraint, the explanation for the exceptional number of cervical ...

    Authors: Christine Böhmer, Eli Amson, Patrick Arnold, Anneke H. van Heteren and John A. Nyakatura

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:84

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  18. Content type: Research article

    The morphological and functional evolution of appendages has played a key role in the diversification of arthropods. While the ancestral arthropod appendage is held to be polyramous, terrestriality is associat...

    Authors: Zhiyong Di, Gregory D. Edgecombe and Prashant P. Sharma

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:73

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  19. Content type: Research article

    Comparative studies of neuroanatomy and neurodevelopment provide valuable information for phylogenetic inference. Beyond that, they reveal transformations of neuroanatomical structures during animal evolution ...

    Authors: Georg Brenneis, Gerhard Scholtz and Barbara S. Beltz

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:47

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  20. Content type: Research article

    Our understanding of the ontogeny of Palaeozoic brachiopods has changed significantly during the last two decades. However, the micromorphic acrotretoids have received relatively little attention, resulting in...

    Authors: Zhiliang Zhang, Leonid E. Popov, Lars E. Holmer and Zhifei Zhang

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:42

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  21. Content type: Research article

    Morphological convergence triggered by trophic adaptations is a common pattern in adaptive radiations. The study of shape variation in an evolutionary context is usually restricted to well-studied fish models....

    Authors: Madlen Stange, Gabriel Aguirre-Fernández, Walter Salzburger and Marcelo R. Sánchez-Villagra

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:38

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  22. Content type: Research article

    It has been proposed that non-genetic inheritance could promote species fitness. Non-genetic inheritance could allow offspring to benefit from the experience of their parents, and could advocate pre-adaptation...

    Authors: Irene Adrian-Kalchhauser, Jean-Claude Walser, Michaela Schwaiger and Patricia Burkhardt-Holm

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:34

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  23. Content type: Research article

    Gyrinidae are a charismatic group of highly specialized beetles, adapted for a unique lifestyle of swimming on the water surface. They prey on drowning insects and other small arthropods caught in the surface ...

    Authors: Evgeny V. Yan, Rolf G. Beutel and John F. Lawrence

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:33

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  24. Content type: Research article

    The Wnt signaling pathway is uniquely metazoan and used in many processes during development, including the formation of polarity and body axes. In sponges, one of the earliest diverging animal groups, Wnt pat...

    Authors: Pamela J. Windsor Reid, Eugueni Matveev, Alexandra McClymont, Dora Posfai, April L. Hill and Sally P. Leys

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:12

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  25. Content type: Research article

    Antennae are multi-segmented appendages and main odor-sensing organs in insects. In Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies), antennal morphologies have diversified according to their ecological requirements. While...

    Authors: Toshiya Ando, Haruhiko Fujiwara and Tetsuya Kojima

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:8

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  26. Content type: Research article

    Chelicerata represents a vast clade of mostly predatory arthropods united by a distinctive body plan throughout the Phanerozoic. Their origins, however, with respect to both their ancestral morphological featu...

    Authors: Cédric Aria and Jean-Bernard Caron

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:261

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    The Correction to this article has been published in BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:78

  27. Content type: Research article

    Xenoturbella is a group of marine benthic animals lacking an anus and a centralized nervous system. Molecular phylogenetic analyses group the animal together with the Acoelomorpha, forming th...

    Authors: Hiroaki Nakano, Hideyuki Miyazawa, Akiteru Maeno, Toshihiko Shiroishi, Keiichi Kakui, Ryo Koyanagi, Miyuki Kanda, Noriyuki Satoh, Akihito Omori and Hisanori Kohtsuka

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:245

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    The Correction to this article has been published in BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:83

  29. Content type: Research Article

    Rates of morphological evolution vary across different taxonomic groups, and this has been proposed as one of the main drivers for the great diversity of organisms on Earth. Of the extrinsic factors pertaining...

    Authors: Emma Sherratt, Jeanne M. Serb and Dean C. Adams

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:248

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  30. Content type: Research article

    The volvocine lineage, containing unicellular Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and differentiated multicellular Volvox carteri, is a powerful model for comparative studies aiming at understanding emergence of multicellu...

    Authors: Yoko Arakaki, Takayuki Fujiwara, Hiroko Kawai-Toyooka, Kaoru Kawafune, Jonathan Featherston, Pierre M. Durand, Shin-ya Miyagishima and Hisayoshi Nozaki

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:243

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  31. Content type: Research article

    Longwing butterflies, Heliconius sp., also called heliconians, are striking examples of diversity and mimicry in butterflies. Heliconians feature strongly colored patterns on their wings, arising from wing scales...

    Authors: Bodo D. Wilts, Aidan J. M. Vey, Adriana D. Briscoe and Doekele G. Stavenga

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:226

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  32. Content type: Research article

    Phylactolaemata is commonly regarded the earliest branch within Bryozoa and thus the sister group to the other bryozoan taxa, Cyclostomata and Gymnolaemata. Therefore, the taxon is important for the reconstruc...

    Authors: Natalie Gawin, Andreas Wanninger and Thomas Schwaha

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:225

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  33. Content type: Research article

    The Spiralia are a large, morphologically diverse group of protostomes (e.g. molluscs, annelids, nemerteans) that share a homologous mode of early development called spiral cleavage. One of the most highly-con...

    Authors: Deirdre C. Lyons, Kimberly J. Perry and Jonathan Q. Henry

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:217

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  34. Content type: Research article

    Segmental composition and homologies of the head of stem-group Euarthropoda have been the foci of recent studies on arthropod origins. An emerging hypothesis suggests that upper-stem group euarthropods possess...

    Authors: Peiyun Cong, Allison C. Daley, Gregory D. Edgecombe and Xianguang Hou

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:208

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  35. Content type: Research article

    Non-coding small RNAs (sRNAs) regulate a variety of important biological processes across all life domains, including bacteria. However, little is known about the functional evolution of sRNAs in bacteria, whi...

    Authors: I-Chen Kimberly Chen, Gregory J. Velicer and Yuen-Tsu Nicco Yu

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:199

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  36. Content type: Research article

    Animals use information from their environment to make decisions, ultimately to maximize their fitness. The nematode C. elegans has a pheromone signalling system, which hitherto has principally been thought to be...

    Authors: Barney Wharam, Laura Weldon and Mark Viney

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:197

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  38. Content type: Research article

    The nervous system in brachiopods has seldom been studied with modern methods. An understanding of lophophore innervation in adult brachiopods is useful for comparing the innervation of the same lophophore typ...

    Authors: Elena N. Temereva and Tatyana V. Kuzmina

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:172

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  39. Content type: Research article

    Gene duplications provide genetic material for the evolution of new morphological and physiological features. One copy can preserve the original gene functions while the second copy may evolve new functions (n...

    Authors: Natascha Turetzek, Sara Khadjeh, Christoph Schomburg and Nikola-Michael Prpic

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:168

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  41. Content type: Research article

    Pax genes are transcription factors with significant roles in cell fate specification and tissue differentiation during animal ontogeny. Most information on their tempo-spatial mode of expression is available ...

    Authors: Maik Scherholz, Emanuel Redl, Tim Wollesen, André Luiz de Oliveira, Christiane Todt and Andreas Wanninger

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:81

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  43. Content type: Research article

    Rotifers are microscopic aquatic invertebrates that reproduce both sexually and asexually. Though rotifers are phylogenetically distant from humans, and have specialized reproductive physiology, this work iden...

    Authors: Brande L. Jones, Chris Walker, Bahareh Azizi, Laren Tolbert, Loren Dean Williams and Terry W. Snell

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:65

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  44. Content type: Research article

    Extreme environments prompt the evolution of characteristic adaptations. Yet questions remain about whether radiations in extreme environments originate from a single lineage that masters a key adaptive pathwa...

    Authors: Chong Chen, Katsuyuki Uematsu, Katrin Linse and Julia D. Sigwart

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:62

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  45. Content type: Research article

    During embryogenesis, tight regulation of retinoic acid (RA) availability is fundamental for normal development. In parallel to RA synthesis, a negative feedback loop controlled by RA catabolizing enzymes of t...

    Authors: João E. Carvalho, Maria Theodosiou, Jie Chen, Pascale Chevret, Susana Alvarez, Angel R. De Lera, Vincent Laudet, Jenifer C. Croce and Michael Schubert

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:24

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  46. Content type: Research Article

    Bone-eating worms of the genus Osedax (Annelida, Siboglinidae) have adapted to whale fall environments by acquiring a novel characteristic called the root, which branches and penetrates into sunken bones. The wor...

    Authors: Norio Miyamoto, Masa-aki Yoshida, Hiroyuki Koga and Yoshihiro Fujiwara

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:17

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  49. Content type: Research article

    Volvocine algae, which range from the unicellular Chlamydomonas to the multicellular Volvox with a germ–soma division of labor, are a model for the evolution of multicellularity. Within this group, the spheroidal...

    Authors: Shota Yamashita, Yoko Arakaki, Hiroko Kawai-Toyooka, Akira Noga, Masafumi Hirono and Hisayoshi Nozaki

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:243

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  50. Content type: Research article

    The primordial germ cells (PGCs) giving rise to gametes are determined by two different mechanisms in vertebrates. While the germ cell fate in mammals and salamanders is induced by zygotic signals, maternally ...

    Authors: Adrijana Škugor, Helge Tveiten, Hanne Johnsen and Øivind Andersen

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:232

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