Evolution of nematode vulval fate patterning
Abstract
Nematodes provide a useful experimental system with which to investigate the evolution of development at the cellular, genetic, and molecular levels. Building on an understanding of vulval development in Caenorhabditis elegans, analysis of vulval development has been extended to a number of other species in three families of the Nematode phylum. Changes have occurred in most aspects of vulval development: alteration in the number of cells competent to participate in vulval development by changes in apoptosis; changes in the relative contributions of position-dependent predisposition toward particular fates (prepattern), inductive signaling and lateral signaling; and in the specific lineages generated by vulval precursor cells. Genetic analysis of one species in which only three vulval precursor cells are present identified a mutation that increases the number of vulva precursor cells toward that found in C. elegans.
Citations
Pristionchus.org: a genome-centric database of the nematode satellite species Pristionchus pacificus
Gastropod ontogenetic torsion: developmental remnants of an ancient evolutionary change in body plan
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Apoptosis
Apoptosis is a specific process that leads to programmed cell death through the activation of an evolutionary conserved intracellular pathway leading to pathognomic cellular changes distinct from cellular necrosis