[Role of genes and their cis-regulatory elements during animal morphological evolution]

Abstract

Cis-regulatory hypothesis is one of the most important theories in evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo), which claims that evolution of cis-regulatory elements (CREs) plays a key role during evolution of morphology. However, an increasing number of experimental results show that cis-regulatory hypothesis alone is not far enough to explain the complexity of evo-devo processes. Other modifications, including mutations of protein coding, gene and genome duplications, and flexibility of homeodomains and CREs, also cause the morphological changes in animals. In this review, we retrospect the recent results of evolution of CREs and genes associated with CREs and discuss new methods and trends for research in evo-devo.