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SUMMARY:Manceau et al. (2011) The Developmental Role of Agouti in Color Pa
 ttern Evolution. Science. 331\, pp 1062-1065. - Mircea Iliescu
DTSTART:20110512T120000Z
DTEND:20110512T130000Z
UID:TALK29957@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Simon Baxter
DESCRIPTION:http://www.sciencemag.org/content/331/6020/1062.full\n\nAnimal
  color patterns can affect fitness in the wild\; however\, little is known
  about the mechanisms that control their formation and subsequent evolutio
 n. We took advantage of two locally camouflaged populations of Peromyscus 
 mice to show that the negative regulator of adult pigmentation\, Agouti\, 
 also plays a key developmental role in color pattern evolution. Genetic an
 d functional analyses showed that ventral-specific embryonic expression of
  Agouti establishes a prepattern by delaying the terminal differentiation 
 of ventral melanocytes. Moreover\, a skin-specific increase in both the le
 vel and spatial domain of Agouti expression prevents melanocyte maturation
  in a regionalized manner\, resulting in a novel and adaptive color patter
 n. Thus\, natural selection favors late-acting\, tissue-specific changes i
 n embryonic Agouti expression to produce large changes in adult color patt
 ern.
LOCATION:First Floor Seminar Room\, Department of Zoology
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