Tuyển tập các báo cáo nghiên cứu về sinh học được đăng trên tạp chí sinh học Journal of Biology đề tài: The genomic ‘inner fish’ and a regulatory enigma in the vertebrates. | BioMed Central Journal of Biology Minireview The genomic inner fish and a regulatory enigma in the vertebrates John Malone and Brian Oliver Address Laboratory of Cellular and Developmental Biology National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Bethesda MD 20892 USA. Correspondence John Malone. Email malonej@. Brian Oliver. Email oliver@ Published 16 April 2009 Journal of Biology 2009 8 32 doi jbiol131 The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at http content 8 3 32 2009 BioMed Central Ltd Abstract Information on how genomic information from fish to human encodes the same tissues has until now emerged one gene at a time. The study published in this issue now provides lists of genes and their expression levels for 20 vertebrate tissues spanning 450 million years of vertebrate evolution. It reveals a core set of genes with similar tissue-expression patterns yet no common regulatory signatures - a gene-expression paradox. Even before the origin of species by descent from a common ancestor was posited it was realized that groups of animals had related morphologies. Georges Cuvier the father of comparative anatomy viewed anatomical structures though the lens of form and function. Similar looking anatomical structures should have similar function and anatomy could be used diagnostically to group organisms - a theory he termed the correlation of parts 1 . A famous story illustrates the idea. One of Cuvier s students dressed as the Devil with horns on his head and hoof-shaped shoes burst into Cuvier s bedroom when he was asleep and said I am the Devil. I have come to devour you Cuvier woke up and replied I doubt whether you can. You have horns and hooves. You eat only plants. The relationship between form and function during evolution is a classic problem in biology. Yet to fully understand form and function at the level of anatomy and how those anatomical features change
