Perspectives
Nature Reviews Genetics 8, 473-479 (June 2007) | doi:10.1038/nrg2099
Opinion: The developmental genetics of homology
Günter P. Wagner1 About the author
Abstract
Homology is an essential idea of biology, referring to the historical continuity of characters, but it is also conceptually highly elusive. The main difficulty is the apparently loose relationship between morphological characters and their genetic basis. Here I propose that it is the historical continuity of gene regulatory networks rather than the expression of individual homologous genes that underlies the homology of morphological characters. These networks, here referred to as 'character identity networks', enable the execution of a character-specific developmental programme.
Author affiliations
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Günter P. Wagner is at the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, POB 208106, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8106, USA.
Email: gunter.wagner@yale.edu
Published online 8 May 2007
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