Replaying evolutionary transitions from the dental fossil record

Enni Harjunmaa, Kerstin Seidel, Teemu Häkkinen, Elodie Renvoisé, Ian J. Corfe, Aki Kallonen, Zhao-Qun Zhang, Alistair R. Evans, Marja L. Mikkola, Isaac Salazar-Ciudad, Ophir D. Klein () and Jukka Jernvall ()
Additional contact information
Enni Harjunmaa: Developmental Biology Program, Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 56, FIN-00014 Helsinki, Finland
Kerstin Seidel: Program in Craniofacial and Mesenchymal Biology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94114, USA
Teemu Häkkinen: Developmental Biology Program, Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 56, FIN-00014 Helsinki, Finland
Elodie Renvoisé: Developmental Biology Program, Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 56, FIN-00014 Helsinki, Finland
Ian J. Corfe: Developmental Biology Program, Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 56, FIN-00014 Helsinki, Finland
Aki Kallonen: University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 64, FIN-00014 Helsinki, Finland
Zhao-Qun Zhang: Key Laboratory of Evolutionary Systematics of Vertebrates, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Alistair R. Evans: School of Biological Sciences, Monash University
Marja L. Mikkola: Developmental Biology Program, Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 56, FIN-00014 Helsinki, Finland
Isaac Salazar-Ciudad: Developmental Biology Program, Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 56, FIN-00014 Helsinki, Finland
Ophir D. Klein: Program in Craniofacial and Mesenchymal Biology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94114, USA
Jukka Jernvall: Developmental Biology Program, Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 56, FIN-00014 Helsinki, Finland

Nature, 2014, vol. 512, issue 7512, 44-48

Abstract: Abstract The evolutionary relationships of extinct species are ascertained primarily through the analysis of morphological characters. Character inter-dependencies can have a substantial effect on evolutionary interpretations, but the developmental underpinnings of character inter-dependence remain obscure because experiments frequently do not provide detailed resolution of morphological characters. Here we show experimentally and computationally how gradual modification of development differentially affects characters in the mouse dentition. We found that intermediate phenotypes could be produced by gradually adding ectodysplasin A (EDA) protein in culture to tooth explants carrying a null mutation in the tooth-patterning gene Eda. By identifying development-based character inter-dependencies, we show how to predict morphological patterns of teeth among mammalian species. Finally, in vivo inhibition of sonic hedgehog signalling in Eda null teeth enabled us to reproduce characters deep in the rodent ancestry. Taken together, evolutionarily informative transitions can be experimentally reproduced, thereby providing development-based expectations for character-state transitions used in evolutionary studies.

Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature13613 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:512:y:2014:i:7512:d:10.1038_nature13613

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature13613

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().