ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2008
Identification of reptilian genes encoding hair keratin-like proteins suggests a new scenario for the evolutionary origin of hair.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 51 papers.
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51 citing papers in PubMed, 115 citations in OpenAlex.
- Hoxc13 and homologs of mammalian hair keratins are required for the cornification of nuptial pads in Xenopus frogs.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Skin Appendage Proteins of Tetrapods: Building Blocks of Claws, Feathers, Hair and Other Cornified Epithelial Structures.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Review
- Convergent Evolution of Cysteine-Rich Keratins in Horny Teeth of Jawless Vertebrates and in Cornified Skin Appendages of Amniotes.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Convergent Evolution Has Led to the Loss of Claw Proteins in Snakes and Worm Lizards.Genome biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Spatio-temporal expression patterns of glycine-rich beta proteins and cysteine-rich beta proteins in setae development of Gekko japonicus.BMC genomics · 2024Article
- Evolutionary origin of Hoxc13-dependent skin appendages in amphibians.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Article
- Pseudogenization of the Hair-Related Genes PADI3 and S100A3 in Cetaceans and Hippopotamus amphibius.Journal of molecular evolution · 2023Article
- Evo Devo of the Vertebrates Integument.Journal of developmental biology · 2023Review
- The Story of the Finest Armor: Developmental Aspects of Reptile Skin.Journal of developmental biology · 2023Review
- Complementary evolution of coding and noncoding sequence underlies mammalian hairlessness.eLife · 2022Article
- The susceptibility of disulfide bonds to modification in keratin fibers undergoing tensile stress.Biophysical journal · 2022Article
- Single-cell transcriptomics defines keratinocyte differentiation in avian scutate scales.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- GPHB5 Is a Biomarker in Women With Metabolic Syndrome: Results From Cross-Sectional and Intervention Studies.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2022Article
- Review
- Corneous beta proteins of the epidermal differentiation complex (EDC) form large part of the corneous material of claws and rhamphothecae in turtles.Protoplasma · 2020Article
- Convergent Evolution of Cysteine-Rich Keratins in Hard Skin Appendages of Terrestrial Vertebrates.Molecular biology and evolution · 2020Article
- Immunolocalization and phylogenetic profiling of the feather protein with the highest cysteine content.Protoplasma · 2019Article
- Differential Evolution of the Epidermal Keratin Cytoskeleton in Terrestrial and Aquatic Mammals.Molecular biology and evolution · 2019Article
- Comparative Analysis of Epidermal Differentiation Genes of Crocodilians Suggests New Models for the Evolutionary Origin of Avian Feather Proteins.Genome biology and evolution · 2018Article
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The appearance of hair is one of the main evolutionary innovations in the amniote lineage leading to mammals. The main components of mammalian hair are cysteine-rich type I and type II keratins, also known as hard alpha-keratins or "hair keratins." To determine the evolutionary history of these important structural proteins, we compared the genomic loci of the human hair keratin genes with the homologous loci of the chicken and of the green anole lizard Anolis carolinenis. The genome of the chicken contained one type II hair keratin-like gene, and the lizard genome contained two type I and four type II hair keratin-like genes. Orthology of the latter genes and mammalian hair keratins was supported by gene locus synteny, conserved exon-intron organization, and amino acid sequence similarity of the encoded proteins. The lizard hair keratin-like genes were expressed most strongly in the digits, indicating a role in claw formation. In addition, we identified a novel group of reptilian cysteine-rich type I keratins that lack homologues in mammals. Our data show that cysteine-rich alpha-keratins are not restricted to mammals and suggest that the evolution of mammalian hair involved the co-option of pre-existing structural proteins.
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