Gene study offers new clues to vertebrate evolution
2 Feb 2026
University of St Andrews scientists have cast new light on how vertebrate animals may have emerged.
Their paper, published in BMC Biology, focussed on the?major signalling pathways that?all animal cells use?to?communicate with each other.?
The pathways, vital?to development controlling embryo and organ development,?are targets for both mutations?and?drug development, with proteins at their base directing?cells?into specific responses and gene expression.??
Creating?new?gene?sequencing data in?sea?squirts, a lamprey and a frog species, the researchers found that those?genes responsible for signalling output proteins?had?evolved in a distinctive way.?
Using?long-molecule DNA sequencing for the first time to study the genes expressed in?the three?animals enabled?researchers?to characterise?the range of the transcripts?and?proteins produced from these genes.?
Contrasted with the?invertebrate?sea squirt, the vertebrate lamprey and frog?made?higher numbers of different?forms?of proteins from?the?individual?signalling output?genes,?when compared other types of genes.???
It is likely?these proteins?accounted to a significant?degree?for the greater complexity of vertebrate species, said the researchers.??
Study lead author professor David Ferrier from Glasgow School of Biology, said:?“It?was very?surprising?to us?to see?how this small selection of very particular genes stands out in the way that they are behaving compared to any other sort of gene we looked at.
“It will be exciting to determine how these various different protein forms work in distinct ways to generate the diversity of cell types we now see in vertebrates.”?
In addition to the clues they provide for vertebrate evolution, it is hoped that the protein?variations could assist improved understanding?of how?proteins and?pathways might be manipulated?for disease management therapies.?
Pic: Juvenile Ciona sea squirt (Shunsuke Sogabe)
