Interactions between Hox and TALE genes, which generate bilaterally symmetrical body plans, originated in early multicellular animals.

Embryos of distantly related sea squirt species are nearly identical but develop according to different gene regulatory mechanisms.

Drosophila has almost all transcription factor binding specificities available to humans; and human transcription factors with divergent specificities operate in cell types that are not found in fruit flies.

Short peptide motifs can confer specificity to developmental networks by inhibiting protein–protein interactions.

A phylogeny of all major groups of flatworms based on hundreds of genes sheds new light the early evolution of this important metazoan phylum, with particular significance for the original of vertebrate parasitism.

During the evolution of insect lineages, a signaling pathway dedicated to pathogen defense was co-opted for a new role in embryonic patterning.

A newly discovered cytoplasmic intermediate filament in water bears may help these animals to resist extreme environmental conditions.

The analysis of 20 coral genomic datasets provides unprecedented insights into what makes reef-building corals unique, including the evolution of novel gene families involved in biomineralization, signaling and stress responses that have led to their evolutionary success throughout the Phanerozoic Eon.

The seemingly simple, constitutive response of the patched/Ptch1 gene to Hedgehog signaling is in fact regulated by large batteries of context-specific Hedgehog-responsive enhancers in both fly and mouse, allowing tissue-specific tuning of the Hedgehog pathway in animal development and evolution.

Despite their extreme morphologies, snakes display a global regulatory strategy of their Hox genes similar to that implemented by mammals with, however, important modifications in enhancer specificity.