Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.


Science 10 November 2006:
Vol. 314. no. 5801, pp. 956 - 960
DOI: 10.1126/science.1132310

Review

Paleogenomics of Echinoderms

David J. Bottjer,1* Eric H. Davidson,2 Kevin J. Peterson,3 R. Andrew Cameron2

Paleogenomics propels the meaning of genomic studies back through hundreds of millions of years of deep time. Now that the genome of the echinoid Strongylocentrotus purpuratus is sequenced, the operation of its genes can be interpreted in light of the well-understood echinoderm fossil record. Characters that first appear in Early Cambrian forms are still characteristic of echinoderms today. Key genes for one of these characters, the biomineralized tissue stereom, can be identified in the S. purpuratus genome and are likely to be the same genes that were involved with stereom formation in the earliest echinoderms some 520 million years ago.

1 Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089–0740, USA.
2 Division of Biology 156-29, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
3 Department of Biological Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: dbottjer{at}usc.edu

Read the Full Text



THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Reconstruction of monocotelydoneous proto-chromosomes reveals faster evolution in plants than in animals.
J. Salse, M. Abrouk, S. Bolot, N. Guilhot, E. Courcelle, T. Faraut, R. Waugh, T. J. Close, J. Messing, and C. Feuillet (2009)
PNAS 106, 14908-14913
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Lessons from a gene regulatory network: echinoderm skeletogenesis provides insights into evolution, plasticity and morphogenesis.
C. A. Ettensohn (2009)
Development 136, 11-21
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Origins of the other metazoan body plans: the evolution of larval forms.
R. A Raff (2008)
Phil Trans R Soc B 363, 1473-1479
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Deciphering deuterostome phylogeny: molecular, morphological and palaeontological perspectives.
B. J Swalla and A. B Smith (2008)
Phil Trans R Soc B 363, 1557-1568
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Transfer of a large gene regulatory apparatus to a new developmental address in echinoid evolution.
F. Gao and E. H. Davidson (2008)
PNAS 105, 6091-6096
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Sponge Paleogenomics Reveals an Ancient Role for Carbonic Anhydrase in Skeletogenesis.
D. J. Jackson, L. Macis, J. Reitner, B. M. Degnan, and G. Worheide (2007)
Science 316, 1893-1895
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »



To Advertise     Find Products


Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)