Gill developmental program in the teleost mandibular arch

• Published in: eLife Vol. 11
• Main Authors: Thiruppathy, Mathi, Fabian, Peter, Gillis, J Andrew, Crump, J Gage
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England eLife Science Publications, Ltd 28-06-2022; eLife Sciences Publications Ltd; eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
• Subjects: Aerospace industry; Animals; Biological Evolution; Blood pressure; Branchial Region; Cartilage; cranial neural crest; Developmental Biology; Evolutionary Biology; Fishes; GATA-3 protein; Gene expression; Gill; Gills; Homology; Jaw; Labeling; Mandible; mandibular arch; Mesenchyme; Pseudobranch; Short Report; Veins & arteries; Zebrafish; United States; jaw; Gill; evolutionary biology; developmental biology; mandibular arch; Pseudobranch; zebrafish; cranial neural crest
• ISSN: 2050-084X; 2050-084X
• DOI: 10.7554/eLife.78170

Whereas no known living vertebrate possesses gills derived from the jaw-forming mandibular arch, it has been proposed that the jaw arose through modifications of an ancestral mandibular gill. Here, we show that the zebrafish pseudobranch, which regulates blood pressure in the eye, develops from mandibular arch mesenchyme and first pouch epithelia and shares gene expression, enhancer utilization, and developmental
dependence with the gills. Combined with work in chondrichthyans, our findings in a teleost fish point to the presence of a mandibular pseudobranch with serial homology to gills in the last common ancestor of jawed vertebrates, consistent with a gill origin of vertebrate jaws.