ArticleEvoDevo2018
Embryonic lethality is not sufficient to explain hourglass-like conservation of vertebrate embryos.
Article in EvoDevo, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- Internalized Evolutionary Inertia on Body Plan Evolution.Evolution & development · 2026Review
- Insights into cephalochordate genome and gene evolution from the early-diverging amphioxusProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Developmental hourglass: Verification by numerical evolution and elucidation by dynamical-systems theory.PLoS computational biology · 2024Article
- Intergenerational plasticity to cycling high temperature and hypoxia affects offspring stress responsiveness and tolerance in zebrafish.The Journal of experimental biology · 2023Article
- Stability in gene expression and body-plan development leads to evolutionary conservation.EvoDevo · 2023Article
- Potential contribution of intrinsic developmental stability toward body plan conservation.BMC biology · 2022Article
- The developmental hourglass model and recapitulation: An attempt to integrate the two models.Journal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution · 2022Review
- Derivedness Index for Estimating Degree of Phenotypic Evolution of Embryos: A Study of Comparative Transcriptomic Analyses of Chordates and Echinoderms.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2021Article
- Toward understanding of evolutionary constraints: experimental and theoretical approaches.Biophysical reviews · 2020Review
- Magnitude and significance of the peak of early embryonic mortality.Journal of biological physics · 2020Review
- Genomic Signature of Shifts in Selection in a Subalpine Ant and Its Physiological Adaptations.Molecular biology and evolution · 2020Article
- Genomic insights of body plan transitions from bilateral to pentameral symmetry in Echinoderms.Communications biology · 2020Article
- Phenotypic plasticity induced using high ambient temperature during embryogenesis in domesticated zebrafish, Danio rerio.Reproduction in domestic animals = Zuchthygiene · 2019Article
- Adaptive Evolution of Animal Proteins over Development: Support for the Darwin Selection Opportunity Hypothesis of Evo-Devo.Molecular biology and evolution · 2018Article
- The phylum Vertebrata: a case for zoological recognition.Zoological letters · 2018Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundUnderstanding the general trends in developmental changes during animal evolution, which are often associated with morphological diversification, has long been a central issue in evolutionary developmental biology. Recent comparative transcriptomic studies revealed that gene expression profiles of mid-embryonic period tend to be more evolutionarily conserved than those in earlier or later periods. While the hourglass-like divergence of developmental processes has been demonstrated in a variety of animal groups such as vertebrates, arthropods, and nematodes, the exact mechanism leading to this mid-embryonic conservation remains to be clarified. One possibility is that the mid-embryonic period (pharyngula period in vertebrates) is highly prone to embryonic lethality, and the resulting negative selections lead to evolutionary conservation of this phase. Here, we tested this "mid-embryonic lethality hypothesis" by measuring the rate of lethal phenotypes of three different species of vertebrate embryos subjected to two kinds of perturbations: transient perturbations and genetic mutations.
resultsBy subjecting zebrafish (
conclusionIn opposition to the "mid-embryonic lethality hypothesis," our results consistently showed that the stage with the highest lethality was not around the conserved pharyngula period, but rather around the early period in all the vertebrate species tested. These results suggest that negative selection by embryonic lethality could not explain hourglass-like conservation of animal embryos. This highlights the potential contribution of alternative mechanisms such as the diversifying effect of positive selections against earlier and later stages, and developmental constraints which lead to conservation of mid-embryonic stages.
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