Transcriptomic analysis of avian digits reveals conserved and derived digit identities in birds

Zhe Wang, Rebecca L. Young, Huiling Xue and Günter P. Wagner ()
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Zhe Wang: Yale Systems Biology Institute, Yale University
Rebecca L. Young: Yale Systems Biology Institute, Yale University
Huiling Xue: Yale University School of Medicine
Günter P. Wagner: Yale Systems Biology Institute, Yale University

Nature, 2011, vol. 477, issue 7366, 583-586

Abstract: Digit trouble in today's 'dinosaurs' Birds are now almost universally seen as the modern-day descendants of the dinosaurs, but there has always been a problem. The three digits of dinosaur limbs are usually thought to correspond with digits 1, 2 and 3 of the ancestral tetrapod pattern, whereas those of bird limbs seem to correspond with digits 2, 3 and 4. One solution has been to propose that a 'homeotic frame shift' changed the identities of the digits in evolution. Evidence for this now comes from work by Günter Wagner and colleagues, using transcriptomics to show that hind digit 1 in chicks has the same transcriptome as wing digit 2. In other words, wing digit 1 underwent a homeotic shift in evolution. The identities of all the other digits, however, remain much less clear.

Date: 2011
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DOI: 10.1038/nature10391

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