Evolution of developmental functions within the Dlx gene family

了解动物基因组的变化如何允许地球上惊人的生命多样性的进化是现代生物学中的一个重大挑战。动物群体之间的大部分差异代表着胚胎发育计划的差异。因此，了解调控发育的基因的结构和功能的变化与由此产生的形态之间的关系，是理解身体规划变化的关键。基因的复制和随后的复制副本的分化以及它们被招募到新的功能被认为是基因组增加形态复杂性和多样性的关键贡献。这被认为发生在进化成脊椎动物(像我们这样的有脊椎的动物)的动物谱系中。观察今天活着的动物，我们发现无脊椎动物和昆虫一样，通常只有一个特定基因的版本，而人类和其他脊椎动物通常有多个相关(同源)基因，这些基因根据它们在体内的活动位置而执行新的不同功能。我们正在研究DLX调节基因家族的功能进化，以了解基因调节基因表达和功能的变化与动物进化之间的关系。这项工作将提高我们对在分子水平上控制动物发育的机制的了解，以及这些机制如何随着进化时间的推移而变化。这是一项基础研究，将在国际上对发育生物学、细胞生物学和进化生物学领域产生影响。

Understanding how changes in animal genomes permitted the evolution of the staggering diversity of life on earth is a major challenge in modern biology. Most of the differences between groups of animals represent variations in the embryonic developmental program. Understanding the relationship between changes in the structure and function of genes that regulate development and the resulting morphology is therefore key to understanding variations in body plans. Duplication of genes with subsequent divergence of the duplicated copies and their recruitment to new functions are thought to be key genomic contributions to increased morphological complexity and diversity. This is thought to have happened in a lineage of animals that evolved into the vertebrates (animals, like us, with backbones). Looking at animals alive today, we find that invertebrates like insects often have a single version of a particular gene, whereas humans and other vertebrates usually have multiple related (homologous) genes that carry out new and different functions depending upon where in the body they are active. We are studying the evolution of function in the Dlx family of regulatory genes to understand the relationships between changes in the expression and function of gene regulators and animal evolution. This work will improve our knowledge of the mechanisms that control animal development at the molecular level and also how these mechanisms have changed over evolutionary time. This is basic research that will have an impact on the fields of developmental, cell, and evolutionary biology at an international level.