The recent increase in genomic data is revealing an unexpected perspective of gene loss as
a pervasive source of genetic variation that can cause adaptive phenotypic diversity. This …

The identification of neurological symptoms caused by vitamin A deficiency pointed to a
critical, early developmental role of vitamin A and its metabolite, retinoic acid (RA). The …

Vitamin A is essential for the formation and maintenance of many body tissues. It is also
important for embryonic growth and development and can act as a teratogen at critical …

Recent phylogenomic analyses have suggested tunicates instead of cephalochordates as
the closest living relatives of vertebrates. In direct contradiction with the long accepted view …

Retinoic acid (RA), the most active retinoid, is synthesized in two steps from retinol. The first
step, oxidation of retinol to retinaldehyde, is catalyzed by cytosolic alcohol dehydrogenases …

Reciprocal questions often frame studies of the evolution of developmental mechanisms.
How can species share similar developmental genetic toolkits but still generate diverse life …

The study of the evolutionary origin of vertebrates has been linked to the study of genome
duplications since Susumo Ohno suggested that the successful diversification of vertebrate …

Retinoic acid (RA) is a vitamin A‐derived morphogen important for axial patterning and
organ formation in develo** vertebrates and invertebrate chordates (tunicates and …

Hox genes are known to specify spatial identities along the anterior-posterior axis during
embryogenesis. In vertebrates and most other deuterostomes, they are arranged in sets of …

To help understand the elusive mechanisms of zebrafish sex determination, we studied the
genetic machinery regulating production and breakdown of retinoic acid (RA) during the …