ReviewZoological letters2015
Did homeobox gene duplications contribute to the Cambrian explosion?
Review in Zoological letters, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 64 citations in OpenAlex.
- Conserved and diverged embryonic expression patterns of panarthropod NK-Cluster genes and new evidence for CRE-shuffling.BMC ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- An Increase in Animal Diversity was Facilitated by Ecologically-Driven Brain Complexity Throughout the Cambrian.BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2026Review
- Patterns of Conservation and Loss of Hox Genes in Xenacoelomorph Lineage Since Divergence From Last Common Bilaterian Ancestor.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
- The social origins of consciousness.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Development necessitates evolutionarily conserved factors.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Evo-devo applied to sleep research: an approach whose time has come.Sleep advances : a journal of the Sleep Research Society · 2024Review
- Evolution of the Spider Homeobox Gene Repertoire by Tandem and Whole Genome Duplication.Molecular biology and evolution · 2023Article
- Diversity, duplication, and genomic organization of homeobox genes in Lepidoptera.Genome research · 2023Article
- HOX-Gene Cluster Organization and Genome Duplications in Fishes and Mammals: Transcript Variant Distribution along the Anterior-Posterior Axis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Homeobox genes and the specification of neuronal identity.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2021Review
- Homeotic Genes: Clustering, Modularity, and Diversity.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2021Review
- Mutation of amphioxus Pdx and Cdx demonstrates conserved roles for ParaHox genes in gut, anus and tail patterning.BMC biology · 2020Article
- Evolution of nitric oxide regulation of gut function.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2019Article
- Genetic codes optimized as a traveling salesman problem.PloS one · 2019Article
- Comparative thanatology, an integrative approach: exploring sensory/cognitive aspects of death recognition in vertebrates and invertebrates.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2018Review
- Xenacoelomorpha Survey Reveals That All 11 Animal Homeobox Gene Classes Were Present in the First Bilaterians.Genome biology and evolution · 2018Article
- Homeobox Gene Duplication and Divergence in Arachnids.Molecular biology and evolution · 2018Article
- Alfred Sturtevant Walks into a Bar: Gene Dosage, Gene Position, and Unequal Crossing Over in Drosophila.Genetics · 2016Article
- Homeodomain proteins: an update.Chromosoma · 2016Review
- Hox genes and evolution.F1000Research · 2016Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The Cambrian explosion describes an apparently rapid increase in the diversity of bilaterian animals around 540-515 million years ago. Bilaterian animals explore the world in three-dimensions deploying forward-facing sense organs, a brain, and an anterior mouth; they possess muscle blocks enabling efficient crawling and burrowing in sediments, and they typically have an efficient 'through-gut' with separate mouth and anus to process bulk food and eject waste, even when burrowing in sediment. A variety of ecological, environmental, genetic, and developmental factors have been proposed as possible triggers and correlates of the Cambrian explosion, and it is likely that a combination of factors were involved. Here, I focus on a set of developmental genetic changes and propose these are part of the mix of permissive factors. I describe how ANTP-class homeobox genes, which encode transcription factors involved in body patterning, increased in number in the bilaterian stem lineage and earlier. These gene duplications generated a large array of ANTP class genes, including three distinct gene clusters called NK, Hox, and ParaHox. Comparative data supports the idea that NK genes were deployed primarily to pattern the bilaterian mesoderm, Hox genes coded position along the central nervous system, and ParaHox genes most likely originally specified the mouth, midgut, and anus of the newly evolved through-gut. It is proposed that diversification of ANTP class genes played a role in the Cambrian explosion by contributing to the patterning systems used to build animal bodies capable of high-energy directed locomotion, including active burrowing.
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