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Full-Text Articles in Cell and Developmental Biology

Epigenetic Regulation Of Genomic Imprinting During Early Mammalian Embryonic Development, Chelsea Marcho Nov 2018

Epigenetic Regulation Of Genomic Imprinting During Early Mammalian Embryonic Development, Chelsea Marcho

Doctoral Dissertations

Mammalian development involves remarkable changes, starting from a single-cell, totipotent zygote and ending with a developed organism comprised of diverse cells types with distinct morphologies, structures, and functions. Within three days of murine development, the two parental genomes merge into a single nucleus, begin zygotic gene expression, undergo epigenetic remodeling, and make the first lineage decisions. Diversity in cell-types is possible even though cells share the same genome. This diversity is achieved by the tight regulation of differential transcriptional programs. There are many ways these transcriptional programs can be initiated. Epigenetic alterations to the genome can drive transcriptional changes. Epigenetic …


Evolvability Of The Skull: A Study Of Genetic Basis And Integration In The Teleost Craniofacial Skeleton, Yinan Hu Mar 2016

Evolvability Of The Skull: A Study Of Genetic Basis And Integration In The Teleost Craniofacial Skeleton, Yinan Hu

Doctoral Dissertations

As the field of evolutionary biology pivots away from a gene-centric view of how adaptive evolution proceeds, renewed emphasis is placed on the origin of phenotypic variation. Understanding the developmental processes that underlie the production of novel traits, and how they might influence evolvability, is considered a primary goal in the on-going “extended evolutionary synthesis”. The following dissertation explores these questions in the context of adaptive radiations in fish, with a focus on morphological variation in the craniofacial skeleton. Specifically, the first chapter investigates the genetic and developmental basis of shape (co-)variation in the feeding apparatus of African cichlid fishes, …