ArticlePLoS biology2008
Loss of egg yolk genes in mammals and the origin of lactation and placentation.
Article in PLoS biology, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 61 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
61 citing papers in PubMed, 147 citations in OpenAlex.
- Concordance, discordance, and conflation: mired in the admixture of ARTs and Add-ons.Journal of assisted reproduction and genetics · 2026Article
- Soma-to-germline miRNA inheritance through yolk promotes stress resilience in progeny.Nature structural & molecular biology · 2026Article
- Reduced Vitellogenin Expression is Associated with Impaired Oogenesis in Female Triploid Pacific Oysters (Crassostrea gigas).Marine biotechnology (New York, N.Y.) · 2026Article
- Article
- Convergent Evolutionary Dead-End and Breakdown of Hard Chorion in Parental-Egg-Care Fish Reproductive Strategies.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- Genomic signatures associated with the evolutionary loss of egg yolk in parasitoid wasps.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Origin, fate and function of extraembryonic tissues during mammalian development.Nature reviews. Molecular cell biology · 2025Review
- Article
- SRS microscopy identifies inhibition of vitellogenesis as a mediator of lifespan extension by caloric restriction inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- A bioinformatic approach to characterize the vitellogenin receptor and the low density lipoprotein receptor superfamily in the newt Cynops orientalis.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Effect of Dietary Riboflavin Levels on Reproductive Performance of Pigeon Breeders, and Growth Performance and Carcass Traits of Offspring Squabs.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Article
- Maternal regulation of the vertebrate oocyte-to-embryo transition.PLoS genetics · 2024Article
- Convergent genomic signatures associated with vertebrate viviparity.BMC biology · 2024Article
- Evolution, diversification and function of the maternal-infant dyad in mammalian feeding.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Yolk-deprivedLife science alliance · 2023Article
- Egg Yolk Protein Homologs Identified in Live-Bearing Sharks: Co-Opted in the Lecithotrophy-to-Matrotrophy Shift?Genome biology and evolution · 2023Article
- Article
- Evolutionary consequences of genomic deletions and insertions in the woolly mammoth genome.iScience · 2022Article
- "Cutting and Burning Guts" Nourish the YoungMolecules and cells · 2022Article
- The comparative energetics of the carnivorans and pangolins.Conservation physiology · 2022Article
1 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Embryonic development in nonmammalian vertebrates depends entirely on nutritional reserves that are predominantly derived from vitellogenin proteins and stored in egg yolk. Mammals have evolved new resources, such as lactation and placentation, to nourish their developing and early offspring. However, the evolutionary timing and molecular events associated with this major phenotypic transition are not known. By means of sensitive comparative genomics analyses and evolutionary simulations, we here show that the three ancestral vitellogenin-encoding genes were progressively lost during mammalian evolution (until around 30-70 million years ago, Mya) in all but the egg-laying monotremes, which have retained a functional vitellogenin gene. Our analyses also provide evidence that the major milk resource genes, caseins, which have similar functional properties as vitellogenins, appeared in the common mammalian ancestor approximately 200-310 Mya. Together, our data are compatible with the hypothesis that the emergence of lactation in the common mammalian ancestor and the development of placentation in eutherian and marsupial mammals allowed for the gradual loss of yolk-dependent nourishment during mammalian evolution.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.