Fig. 3
From: Evolution of beak morphology in the Ground Tit revealed by comparative transcriptomics
Effects of changes in coding sequence and gene expression on beak morphology. a. Evolutionary analysis showed no accelerated evolution in coding sequences of the Ground Tit. The left phylogenetic tree was constructed using BEAST. We compared dN/dS ratios between each lineage for 1873 retained genes (middle box plot) and 49 bone-morphogenesis-related genes (right box plot). b. RNA-Seq analyses revealed expression patterns of the 17 candidate genes that were related to bone development. These genes can be divided into up- and down-regulated groups. PhuB1, replicate 1 of Ground Tit beak; PhuB2, replicate 2 of Ground Tit beak; PmaB1, replicate 1 of Great Tit beak; PmaB2, replicate 2 of Great Tit beak. c. RT-qPCR experiments confirmed the significant differences in expression of FGF13, FRZB, WIF1, ITGB3 and NFATC1 between Ground Tits and Great Tits. The fold-change values of these genes are shown under the bars. ***, P < 0.001. **, P < 0.01. d. In situ hybridization assays for spatial expression patterns of FGF13, WIF1 and ITGB3 on sections of upper beaks. A white dotted box circles the expression domains