ArticleNature2015
Evolution of the new vertebrate head by co-option of an ancient chordate skeletal tissue.
Article in Nature, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers.
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Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed, 97 citations in OpenAlex.
- Co-option and innovation in neural crest evolution.Science advances · 2026Review
- Evolutionary innovation within conserved gene regulatory networks underlying biomineralized skeletons in Bilateria.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Evolutionary trends in the emergence of skeletal cell types.Evolution letters · 2025Article
- Distinct gene regulatory dynamics drive skeletogenic cell fate convergence during vertebrate embryogenesis.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Article
- Evolution of Oligodendroglia and Myelin.Advances in neurobiology · 2025Review
- Gene duplication contributes to liver evolution.Nature ecology & evolution · 2024Article
- The Origin and Fate of Chondrocytes: Cell Plasticity in Physiological Setting.Current osteoporosis reports · 2023Review
- Review
- Induction of kidney-related gene programs through co-option of SALL1 in mole ovotestes.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2023Article
- Cartilage diversification and modularity drove the evolution of the ancestral vertebrate head skeleton.EvoDevo · 2023Article
- The impact of Drew Noden's work on our understanding of craniofacial musculoskeletal integration.Developmental dynamics : an official publication of the American Association of Anatomists · 2022Review
- Review
- Gene regulatory network from cranial neural crest cells to osteoblast differentiation and calvarial bone development.Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2022Review
- Limb Mesoderm and Head Ectomesenchyme Both Express a Core Transcriptional Program During Chondrocyte Differentiation.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2022Article
- A Comprehensive Analysis of Fibrillar Collagens in Lamprey Suggests a Conserved Role in Vertebrate Musculoskeletal Evolution.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2022Article
- Riding the crest to get a head: neural crest evolution in vertebrates.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2021Review
- Non-ammocoete larvae of Palaeozoic stem lampreys.Nature · 2021Article
- Ultrastructural and molecular analysis of the origin and differentiation of cells mediating brittle star skeletal regeneration.BMC biology · 2021Article
- A Systems-Based Key Innovation-Driven Approach Infers Co-option of Jaw Developmental Programs During Cancer Progression.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
A defining feature of vertebrates (craniates) is a pronounced head that is supported and protected by a robust cellular endoskeleton. In the first vertebrates, this skeleton probably consisted of collagenous cellular cartilage, which forms the embryonic skeleton of all vertebrates and the adult skeleton of modern jawless and cartilaginous fish. In the head, most cellular cartilage is derived from a migratory cell population called the neural crest, which arises from the edges of the central nervous system. Because collagenous cellular cartilage and neural crest cells have not been described in invertebrates, the appearance of cellular cartilage derived from neural crest cells is considered a turning point in vertebrate evolution. Here we show that a tissue with many of the defining features of vertebrate cellular cartilage transiently forms in the larvae of the invertebrate chordate Branchiostoma floridae (Florida amphioxus). We also present evidence that during evolution, a key regulator of vertebrate cartilage development, SoxE, gained new cis-regulatory sequences that subsequently directed its novel expression in neural crest cells. Together, these results suggest that the origin of the vertebrate head skeleton did not depend on the evolution of a new skeletal tissue, as is commonly thought, but on the spread of this tissue throughout the head. We further propose that the evolution of cis-regulatory elements near an ancient regulator of cartilage differentiation was a major factor in the evolution of the vertebrate head skeleton.
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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.