TY  - JOUR
A1  - Huynen, Leon
A1  - Suzuki, Takayuki
A1  - Ogura, Toshihiko
A1  - Watanabe, Yusuke
A1  - Millar, Craig D.
A1  - Hofreiter, Michael
A1  - Smith, Craig
A1  - Mirmoeini, Sara
A1  - Lambert, David M.
T1  - Reconstruction and in vivo analysis of the extinct tbx5 gene from ancient wingless moa (Aves: Dinornithiformes)
JF  - BMC evolutionary biology
N2  - Background: The forelimb-specific gene tbx5 is highly conserved and essential for the development of forelimbs in zebrafish, mice, and humans. Amongst birds, a single order, Dinornithiformes, comprising the extinct wingless moa of New Zealand, are unique in having no skeletal evidence of forelimb-like structures.
 Results: To determine the sequence of tbx5 in moa, we used a range of PCR-based techniques on ancient DNA to retrieve all nine tbx5 exons and splice sites from the giant moa, Dinornis. Moa Tbx5 is identical to chicken Tbx5 in being able to activate the downstream promotors of fgf10 and ANF. In addition we show that missexpression of moa tbx5 in the hindlimb of chicken embryos results in the formation of forelimb features, suggesting that Tbx5 was fully functional in wingless moa. An alternatively spliced exon 1 for tbx5 that is expressed specifically in the forelimb region was shown to be almost identical between moa and ostrich, suggesting that, as well as being fully functional, tbx5 is likely to have been expressed normally in moa since divergence from their flighted ancestors, approximately 60 mya.
KW  - tbx5
KW  - Moa
KW  - Gene expression
KW  - Ancient DNA
KW  - Development
KW  - Forelimb
Y1  - 2014
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-14-75
SN  - 1471-2148
VL  - 14
PB  - BioMed Central
CY  - London
ER  -