Evo-Devo:
avances en la embriología molecular y la evolución
Abstract
Here we review how molecular biology studies revolutionized our present understanding of animal evolution, founding a new discipline called Evo-Devo, or molecular Evolution and Development. First, we discuss the discovery of the 39 Hox genes, which determine the identity of the antero-posterior (A-P) axis of the body in both vertebrates and invertebrates. Second, we examine how a morphogenetic gradient determines the dorsal-ventral (D-V) axis and tissue differentiations typical of all vertebrates. This gradient is formed during gastrulation through the secretion of Chordin, a protein that binds to and antagonizes Bone Morphogenetic Proteins (BMPs), generating a diffusion gradient facilitated by the degradation of Chordin by the Tolloid
proteinase that liberates active BMPs on the ventral side. We examine how the activity of these genetic networks that regulate cell communication in the embryo are responsible for multiple pathologies such as congenital malformations and cancer. Confirming the adage that oncogenesis recapitulates ontogenesis, HoxA9 drives acute myeloid leukemia: β-Catenin drives almost all colorectal cancers; Nodal causes formation of tumor stem cells; Chordin is amplified in broncho-pulmonary epithelial tumors; and Goosecoid drives epithelial-mesenchymal transition and metastases. Finally, we discuss how these discoveries have modified
our understanding of Darwinian evolution through natural selection. Not all imaginable animal morphologies were possible, because they had to be compatible with the use of the universal genetic networks of embryonic development inherited form Urbilateria, the last common ancestor of all bilateral animals.
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