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Published November 24, 1995 | public
Journal Article

Origin of Bilaterian Body Plans: Evolution of Developmental Regulatory Mechanisms

Abstract

An argument is proposed to explain the origin of large metazoans, based on the regulatory processes that underlie the morphogenetic organization of pattern in modern animals. Genetic regulatory systems similar to those used in modern, indirectly developing marine invertebrates are considered to indicate the Precambrian regulatory platform on which were erected innovations that underlie the development of macroscopic body plans. Those systems are genetic regulatory programs that produce groups of unspecified "set-aside cells" and hierarchical regulatory programs that initially define regions of morphogenetic space in terms of domains of transcription factor expression. These ideas affect interpretation of the development of arthropods and chordates as well as interpretation of the role of the genes of the homeotic complex in embryogenesis.

Additional Information

© 1995 American Association for the Advancement of Science. Issued 24 November 1995. We are grateful to reviewers of drafts of this manuscript, namely, M. Levine of University of California, San Diego; B. Runnegar and C. Marshall of UCLA; and P. Sternberg, E. Rothenberg, and S. Fraser of Caltech. E.H.D. was supported by NIH grant HD-05753, and R.A.C. was supported by NSF grant IBN-9220242 and NIH grant RR-06591.

Additional details

Created:
September 14, 2023
Modified:
October 23, 2023