A major premise in evolutionary developmental biology is that regulatory changes, often involving cis-regulatory elements, are responsible for much morphological evolution. This premise is supported by recent investigations of animal development, but information is just beginning to accumulate regarding whether it also applies to the evolution of plant morphology^1-4. Here, we identify the genetic differences between species in the genus Clarkia that are responsible for evolutionary change in an ecologically important element of floral colour patterns: spot position. The evolutionary shift in spot position was due to two simple genetic changes that resulted in the appearance of a transcription factor binding site mutation in the R2R3 Myb gene that changes spot formation. These genetic changes caused R2R3 Myb to be activated by a different transcription factor that is expressed in a different position in the petal. These results suggest that the regulatory rewiring paradigm is as applicable to plants as it is to animals, and support the hypothesis that cis-regulatory changes may often play a role in plant morphological evolution.

中文翻译：

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顺式调控元件的两个遗传变化导致了克拉克花瓣斑点位置的演变。

进化发育生物学的一个主要前提是，调控变化通常涉及顺式调控元件，是许多形态学进化的原因。这一前提得到了最近对动物发育的研究的支持，但是有关它是否也适用于植物形态学进化的信息才刚刚开始积累^1-4。在这里，我们确定了克拉克属中物种之间的遗传差异，这些差异是花卉颜色图案的生态重要元素：斑点位置的进化变化。点位置的进化转移是由于两个简单的遗传变化，导致在R2R3 Myb基因中出现了转录因子结合位点突变，从而改变了点的形成。这些遗传变化导致R2R3 Myb被表达在花瓣中不同位置的不同转录因子激活。这些结果表明，调控重布线范式既适用于植物，也适用于动物，并且支持顺式调控变化可能经常在植物形态进化中起作用的假说。