Sarah A. Mereby

Aug 14, 2024 | digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu | Charles Y. Feigin |Jorge Moreno |Raul Ramos |Sarah A. Mereby

Lateral flight membranes, or patagia, have evolved repeatedly in diverse mammalian lineages. While little is known about patagium development, its recurrent evolution may suggest a shared molecular basis. By combining transcriptomics, developmental experiments, and mouse transgenics, we demonstrate that lateral Wnt5a expression in the marsupial sugar glider (Petaurus breviceps) promotes the differentiation of its patagium primordium.

Apr 24, 2024 | nature.com | Jorge Moreno |Olga Dudchenko |Charles Y. Feigin |Sarah A. Mereby |Zhuoxin Chen |Raul Ramos | +7 more

AbstractPhenotypic variation among species is a product of evolutionary changes to developmental programs1,2. However, how these changes generate novel morphological traits remains largely unclear. Here we studied the genomic and developmental basis of the mammalian gliding membrane, or patagium—an adaptative trait that has repeatedly evolved in different lineages, including in closely related marsupial species.