Acquisition of Germ Plasm Accelerates Vertebrate Evolution

Primordial germ cell (PGC) specification occurs either by induction from pluripotent cells (epigenesis) or by a cell-autonomous mechanism mediated by germ plasm (preformation). Among vertebrates, epigenesis is basal, whereas germ plasm has evolved convergently across lineages and is associated with...

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Published inScience (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 344; no. 6180; pp. 200 - 203
Main Authors Evans, Teri, Wade, Christopher M., Chapman, Frank A., Johnson, Andrew D., Loose, Matthew
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States American Association for the Advancement of Science 11.04.2014
The American Association for the Advancement of Science
Subjects
Amphibians
Animals
Biological Evolution
Coding
Cytoplasm - physiology
Epigenetics
Evolution
Evolutionary biology
Genetic epigenesis
Germ cells
Germ Cells - physiology
Germplasm
Mammals
Neurons
Phylogenetics
Phylogeny
Taxa
Topology
Vertebrates
Vertebrates - classification
Vertebrates - genetics
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Summary:Primordial germ cell (PGC) specification occurs either by induction from pluripotent cells (epigenesis) or by a cell-autonomous mechanism mediated by germ plasm (preformation). Among vertebrates, epigenesis is basal, whereas germ plasm has evolved convergently across lineages and is associated with greater speciation. We compared protein-coding sequences of vertebrate species that employ preformation with their sister taxa that use epigenesis and demonstrate that genes evolve more rapidly in species containing germ plasm. Furthermore, differences in rates of evolution appear to cause phylogenetic incongruence in protein-coding sequence comparisons between vertebrate taxa. Our results support the hypothesis that germ plasm liberates constraints on somatic development and that enhanced evolvability drives the evolution of germ plasm.
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ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1249325