A comprehensive study of arthropod and onychophoran Fox gene expression patterns

PLoS One. 2022 Jul 8;17(7):e0270790. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0270790. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

Fox genes represent an evolutionary old class of transcription factor encoding genes that evolved in the last common ancestor of fungi and animals. They represent key-components of multiple gene regulatory networks (GRNs) that are essential for embryonic development. Most of our knowledge about the function of Fox genes comes from vertebrate research, and for arthropods the only comprehensive gene expression analysis is that of the fly Drosophila melanogaster. For other arthropods, only selected Fox genes have been investigated. In this study, we provide the first comprehensive gene expression analysis of arthropod Fox genes including representative species of all main groups of arthropods, Pancrustacea, Myriapoda and Chelicerata. We also provide the first comprehensive analysis of Fox gene expression in an onychophoran species. Our data show that many of the Fox genes likely retained their function during panarthropod evolution highlighting their importance in development. Comparison with published data from other groups of animals shows that this high degree of evolutionary conservation often dates back beyond the last common ancestor of Panarthropoda.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Arthropods* / genetics
  • Arthropods* / metabolism
  • Drosophila melanogaster / genetics
  • Gene Expression
  • Gene Regulatory Networks
  • Phylogeny

Grants and funding

Financial funding to GEB and RJ was provided by the Swedish Natural Science Council (VR), grant no. 621-2011-4703. Financial funding to NMP and CS was provided by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; grant numbers PR1109/4-1, PR1109/6-1 and PR1109/7-1). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.