Nature Communications (Jan 2016)

Evolution of the fish heart by sub/neofunctionalization of an elastin gene

  • Yuuta Moriyama,
  • Fumihiro Ito,
  • Hiroyuki Takeda,
  • Tohru Yano,
  • Masataka Okabe,
  • Shigehiro Kuraku,
  • Fred W. Keeley,
  • Kazuko Koshiba-Takeuchi

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10397
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

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The bulbus arteriosus is an organ unique to the heart of teleosts, composed of specialized smooth muscle. Here, the authors show that the gene elastin b, which regulates cell fate of cardiac precursor cells into smooth muscle, evolved after whole-genome duplication and neofunctionalization in teleosts.