Symmetry Breaking and the Evolution of Development

@article{Palmer2004SymmetryBA,
  title={Symmetry Breaking and the Evolution of Development},
  author={A. R. Palmer},
  journal={Science},
  year={2004},
  volume={306},
  pages={828 - 833}
}
Because of its simplicity, the binary-switch nature of left-right asymmetry permits meaningful comparisons among many different organisms. Phylogenetic analyses of asymmetry variation, inheritance, and molecular mechanisms reveal unexpected insights into how development evolves. First, directional asymmetry, an evolutionary novelty, arose from nonheritable origins almost as often as from mutations, implying that genetic assimilation (“phenotype precedes genotype”) is a common mode of evolution… Expand
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348 Citations
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348 Citations

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Evidence for a general relevance of rotational/torsional rearrangements during organismal l-r patterning and for non-canonical Wnt signaling/planar cell polarity as a common signaling mechanism to maintain l-R asymmetry is presented. Expand
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The results therefore support and reconfirm previous findings; despite apparent natural variation and evolution of DA in nature, DA remains a paradoxical trait that does not respond to artificial selection. Expand
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Despite their external bilateral symmetry, vertebrates have a conserved left right (LR) asymmetry of their inner organs. For all vertebrates, it is well-known that the asymmetric organogenesis is… Expand
Asymmetry in a pterobranch hemichordate and the evolution of left–right patterning
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  • Biology, Medicine
  • Developmental dynamics : an official publication of the American Association of Anatomists
  • 2008
TLDR
The results suggest that hemichordates have undergone degeneration in the precision of asymmetry from an ancestral asymmetrical condition that existed before the divergence of deuterostomes. Expand
Strategies to establish left/right asymmetry in vertebrates and invertebrates.
TLDR
A number of recent studies on several vertebrate and invertebrate model organisms have provided a more complex view on how L/R asymmetry is established, revealing an apparent partition between deuterostomes and protostomes. Expand
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