Molecular Divergence with Major Morphological Consequences: Development and Evolution of Organ Size and Shape

Masly, John P.; Azom, Md Golam

Molecular Divergence with Major Morphological Consequences: Development and Evolution of Organ Size and Shape

dc.contributor.author	Masly, John P.
dc.contributor.author	Azom, Md Golam
dc.date.accessioned	2023-06-29T13:42:08Z
dc.date.available	2023-06-29T13:42:08Z
dc.date.issued	2022-11
dc.description.abstract	Understanding the causes of the morphological diversity among organisms is a topic of great interest to evolutionary developmental biologists. Although developmental biologists have had great success in identifying the developmental mechanisms and molecular processes that specify organ size and shape within species, only relatively recently have the molecular tools become available to study how variation in these mechanisms gives rise to the phenotypic differences that are observed among closely related species. In addition to these technological advances, researchers interested in understanding how molecular variation gives rise to phenotypic variation have used three primary strategies to identify the molecular differences underlying species-specific traits: the candidate gene approach, differential gene expression screens, and between-species genetic mapping experiments. In this review, we discuss how these approaches have been successful in identifying the genes and the cellular mechanisms by which they specify variation in one of the most recognizable examples of the evolution of organ size, the adaptive variation in beak morphology among Darwin’s finches. We also discuss insect reproductive structures as a model with great potential to advance our understanding of the specification and evolution of organ size and shape differences among species. The results from these two examples, and those from other species, show that species-specific variation in organ size and shape typically evolves via changes in the timing, location, and amount of gene/protein expression that act on tissue growth processes.	en_US
dc.description.notes	This is the accepted manuscript version of the following article: Masly, J. & Azom, M. (2022). Molecular divergence with major morphological consequences: Development and evolution of organ size and shape. Essays in Biochemistry, 66 (6). https://doi.org/10.1042/EBC20220118.
dc.description.peerreview	Yes	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Masly, J.P. and Md Golam Azom (2022) Molecular divergence with major morphological consequences: development and evolution of organ size and shape. Essays in Biochemistry EBC20220118. doi:10.1042/EBC20220118. PMID: 36373649	en_US
dc.identifier.doi	10.1042/EBC20220118	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	https://shareok.org/handle/11244/337842
dc.language	en_US	en_US
dc.rights	Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International	*
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/	*
dc.subject	gene expression	en_US
dc.subject	molecular evolution	en_US
dc.subject	morphology	en_US
dc.subject	developmental biology	en_US
dc.subject	species variation	en_US
dc.title	Molecular Divergence with Major Morphological Consequences: Development and Evolution of Organ Size and Shape	en_US
dc.type	Article	en_US
ou.group	Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences::Department of Biology	en_US