Jorge A Moreno, Olga Dudchenko, Charles Y Feigin, Sarah A Mereby, Zhuoxin Chen, Raul Ramos, Axel A Almet, Harsha Sen, Benjamin J Brack, Matthew R Johnson, Sha Li, Wei Wang, Jenna M Gaska, Alexander Ploss, David Weisz, Arina D Omer, Weijie Yao, Zane Colaric, Parwinder Kaur, Judy St Leger, Qing Nie, Alexandria Mena, Joseph P Flanagan, Greta Keller, Thomas Sanger, Bruce Ostrow, Maksim V Plikus, Evgeny Z Kvon, Erez Lieberman Aiden, Ricardo Mallarino
Phenotypic variation among species is a product of evolutionary changes to developmental programs1,2 . However, how these changes generate novel morphological traits remains largely unclear. Here we studied the genomic and developmental basis of the mammalian gliding membrane, or patagium-an adaptative trait that has repeatedly evolved in different lineages, including in closely related marsupial species. Through comparative genomic analysis of 15 marsupial genomes, both from gliding and non-gliding species, we find that the Emx2 locus experienced lineage-specific patterns of accelerated cis-regulatory evolution in gliding species...
April 24, 2024: Nature