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Armadillo and rabbit genes reveal how pregnancy evolved

Inflammation engulfs a fetus in its first days, but small changes to that attack enables the embryo to implant in the uterus.
  1. Amy Maxmen
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People, dogs and about 4,000 other species of placental mammal are distinguished by the ability to nurture a fetus within the body for extended periods of time. This vital adaptation permits the slow development of big brains. Now, a study of gene expression in early pregnancy, when the embryo implants in the uterus, suggests that placental mammals evolved the ability to turn an inflammatory attack on the embryo into an advantage.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-00341-w

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 10 January 2018: A previous version of this story stated that researchers included hedgehogs in their study, when in fact they looked at an animal called a lesser hedgehog tenrec. The piece has been corrected to reflect this.

References

  1. Griffith, O. W. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 114, E6566–E6575 (2017).

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