Review. Of mice and plants: Comparative developmental systems biology ($) (Devel Biol.)

Although mulicellularity, and so also development, evolved independently in animals and plants, there are nevertheless some striking parallels in the mechanisms used to coordinate these processes. Ten Tesschur compares four developmental processes in plants to similar processes that occur in animal development. As examples, root growth and lateral root prepatterning is compared to body axis elongation and somite segmentation, and plant shoot phyllotaxis is compared to digit patterning in a vertebrate limb. Through these comparisons, the author observes that general design principles and core mechanistic properties are conserved across developmental programs. She summarizes, “Recovering such design principles even in an across-kingdom comparison further underlines the fact that evolution of developmental processes is far from random but instead heavily biased by a limited number of mechanism existing for each particular patterning demand.” (Summary by Mary Williams) Devel. Biol. 10.1016/j.ydbio.2018.10.024