Seminars and Events

"The Evolutionary Origins and Mechanisms of Tetrapod Bauplan”

Tetsuya Nakamura, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Genetics
Rutgers University

Finding the evolutionary origins of our body plan is a fundamental challenge in biology. Tetrapods (terrestrial vertebrates with four limbs) acquired myriads of evolutionary innovations, such as the neck, lung, and digits, during the transition from aquatic to terrestrial habitats. Despite the functional importance of these novel structures, the extinction of transitional animals along the water-to-land axis holds back our understanding of their evolutionary antecedents and trajectories. Over the last several years, our group has explored the evolutionary mechanisms of digits and necks in the aquatic fish body, bridging functional genomics, genetics, and embryology. We have not only identified the novel evolutionary and developmental origins of these structures but also unexpectedly found the latent ability that recapitulates tetrapod-like digits and neck in fish developmental programs. In the seminar, I introduce these recent exciting findings and discuss how the newly obtained knowledge can be leveraged to further trace back the deep origins of tetrapod innovations at the dawn of vertebrate evolution.