Evolutionary developmental transcriptomics reveals a gene network module regulating interspecific diversity in plant leaf shape
Abstract
Ever since Darwin's pioneering research, a major challenge in biology has been to understand the genetic basis of morphological evolution. Utilizing the natural variation in leaf morphology between tomato and two related wild species, we identified a gene network module that leads to a dynamic rewiring of interactions in the whole leaf developmental gene regulatory network. Our work experimentally validates the hypothesis that peripheral regions of network, rather than network hubs, are more likely to contribute to evolutionary innovations. Our data also suggest that, likely due to their bottleneck location in the network, the regulation in KNOX homeobox genes was repeatedly manipulated to generate natural variation in leaf shape.
- Publication:
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- June 2014
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.1402835111
- Bibcode:
- 2014PNAS..111E2616I