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| Turtle and chicken body plan during development |
The unique anatomical features of turtles have raised unanswered questions about the origin of their unique body plan. We generated and analyzed draft genomes of the soft-shell turtle (Pelodiscus sinensis) and the green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas); our results indicated the close relationship of the turtles to the bird-crocodilian lineage, from which they split ~267.9–248.3 million years ago (Upper Permian to Triassic). We also found extensive expansion of olfactory receptor genes in these turtles. Embryonic gene expression analysis identified an hourglass-like divergence of turtle and chicken embryogenesis, with maximal conservation around the vertebrate phylotypic period, rather than at later stages that show the amniote-common pattern. Wnt5a expression was found in the growth zone of the dorsal shell, supporting the possible co-option of limb-associated Wnt signaling in the acquisition of this turtle-specific novelty. Our results suggest that turtle evolution was accompanied by an unexpectedly conservative vertebrate phylotypic period, followed by turtle-specific repatterning of development to yield the novel structure of the shell.
Zhuo Wang, Juan Pascual-Anaya, Amonida Zadissa, Wenqi Li, Yoshihito Niimura, Zhiyong Huang, Chunyi Li, Simon White, Zhiqiang Xiong, Dongming Fang, Bo Wang, Yao Ming, Yan Chen, Yuan Zheng, Shigehiro Kuraku, Miguel Pignatelli, Javier Herrero, Kathryn Beal, Masafumi Nozawa, Qiye Li, Juan Wang, Hongyan Zhang, Lili Yu, Shuji Shigenobu, Junyi Wang, Jiannan Liu, Paul Flicek, Steve Searle, Jun Wang, Shigeru Kuratani, Ye Yin, Bronwen Aken, Guojie Zhang & Naoki Irie. 2013. The draft genomes of soft-shell turtle and green sea turtle yield insights into the development and evolution of the turtle-specific body plan. Nature Genetics. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ng.2615
Turtle genome analysis sheds light on turtle ancestry and shell evolution