Cdx ParaHox genes acquired distinct developmental roles after gene duplication in vertebrate evolution

BMC Biology

Research Article

Laura Faas¹  Harry V. Isaacs¹  Peter W. H. Holland²  Ferdinand Marlétaz²  Ignacio Maeso³ 

[1] Department of Biology, University of York, Heslington, YO10 5DD, York, UK;Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, OX1 3PS, Oxford, UK;Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, OX1 3PS, Oxford, UK;Present address: Centro Andaluz de Biología del Desarrollo (CABD), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas/Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Sevilla, Spain;

关键词: Cdx;    Gene expression;    Paralogues;    Posterior axial patterning;    Transcriptomics;    Vertebrates;    Whole genome duplication;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12915-015-0165-x

 received in 2015-04-29, accepted in 2015-07-08,  发布年份 2015

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe functional consequences of whole genome duplications in vertebrate evolution are not fully understood. It remains unclear, for instance, why paralogues were retained in some gene families but extensively lost in others. Cdx homeobox genes encode conserved transcription factors controlling posterior development across diverse bilaterians. These genes are part of the ParaHox gene cluster. Multiple Cdx copies were retained after genome duplication, raising questions about how functional divergence, overlap, and redundancy respectively contributed to their retention and evolutionary fate.ResultsWe examined the degree of regulatory and functional overlap between the three vertebrate Cdx genes using single and triple morpholino knock-down in Xenopus tropicalis followed by RNA-seq. We found that one paralogue, Cdx4, has a much stronger effect on gene expression than the others, including a strong regulatory effect on FGF and Wnt genes. Functional annotation revealed distinct and overlapping roles and subtly different temporal windows of action for each gene. The data also reveal a colinear-like effect of Cdx genes on Hox genes, with repression of Hox paralogy groups 1 and 2, and activation increasing from Hox group 5 to 11. We also highlight cases in which duplicated genes regulate distinct paralogous targets revealing pathway elaboration after whole genome duplication.ConclusionsDespite shared core pathways, Cdx paralogues have acquired distinct regulatory roles during development. This implies that the degree of functional overlap between paralogues is relatively low and that gene expression pattern alone should be used with caution when investigating the functional evolution of duplicated genes. We therefore suggest that developmental programmes were extensively rewired after whole genome duplication in the early evolution of vertebrates.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Marlétaz et al. 2015. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.