2026-05-07 マックス・プランク研究所
Mouse (left) and chicken (right) during development. Both species use conserved signaling pathways to form the craniofacial region, but differences in how these signals are regulated lead to differences in facial shape. Fgf8 expression is shown in yellow. © Stella Kyomen
＜関連情報＞
- https://www.mpg.de/26469627/0507-limn-how-evolution-sculpts-the-facial-shapes-in-birds-and-mammals-153345-x
- https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aec2511
シス調節領域の進化が鳥類と哺乳類の顔の多様性を形成する Cis-regulatory evolution shapes facial diversity in birds and mammals
Stella Kyomen, Louk W. G. Seton, Laura E. Cook, Elio Escamilla-Vega, […] , and Markéta Kaucká
Science Advances Published:6 May 2026
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aec2511
Abstract
Birds and mammals exhibit extraordinary facial diversity, reflecting adaptations to distinct ecological niches and feeding strategies. While core face-building developmental programs are conserved and orchestrated by interactions between ectodermal organizers and the underlying mesenchyme, mechanisms driving facial shape variation remain poorly understood. Here, we integrate single-cell transcriptomic and chromatin accessibility profiling of mouse and chicken developing face to construct a comparative regulatory map. Although both ectodermal and mesenchymal populations display distinct regulatory features in each species, the mesenchyme exhibits markedly greater divergence, pointing to its central role in shaping facial morphology. We further reveal unexpected molecular complexity in the main face-shaping organizer, including a mouse-specific Shh/Wnt5a expression domain. At key morphogen loci (Bmp4, Fgf8, and Wnt5a), conserved and lineage-specific enhancers exhibit spatially restricted activity patterns that mirror divergent signaling domains. These findings demonstrate how cis-regulatory evolution modulates conserved developmental programs to generate morphological novelty, providing a valuable resource for studying vertebrate facial evolution.
