Bmp4 and Morphological Variation of Beaks in Darwin's Finches
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- 3 September 2004
- journal article
- other
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 305 (5689) , 1462-1465
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1098095
Abstract
Darwin's finches are a classic example of species diversification by natural selection. Their impressive variation in beak morphology is associated with the exploitation of a variety of ecological niches, but its developmental basis is unknown. We performed a comparative analysis of expression patterns of various growth factors in species comprising the genus Geospiza. We found that expression of Bmp4 in the mesenchyme of the upper beaks strongly correlated with deep and broad beak morphology. When misexpressed in chicken embryos, Bmp4 caused morphological transformations paralleling the beak morphology of the large ground finch G. magnirostris .Keywords
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