The preserved remains of body parts tell us about ancient life. Soft tissues and organs can decay quickly and leave little evidence behind.
Scientists are using transcriptomics to investigate the ancient origins of the placenta, which is vital to pregnant women.
In mammals, the placenta can enter through the wall of the uterus and into the mother's tissue. The uterus is the only part of the mammal that touches the placenta. The associate professor of biological sciences at the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences says there is everything in between.
He wants to know what type of placentas were early. Gene expression patterns can be used to reconstruct the evolution of the placenta and predict what the last common ancestor of eutherian mammals would look like. Our data shows that the non-invasive placentas evolved multiple times. The first one was 150 years ago and people have been debating about it.
The eutherian is a mammal that has long pregnancies in which the developing fetus evokes a strong response in the mother.
On June 30th, the research was published. Lynch and Mika were the first authors of the study. Whittington and McAllan are also co- authors.
Mika says, "Our ability to ask how the placenta might have functioned at different points during its evolution is a really cool approach and provides us more information on how changing gene expression can contribute to the evolution of a new trait."
The team compared the genes in the uterus of different mammals during their pregnancies. The scientists used their data to figure out what ancestral mammals' placentas would look like.
A range of mammals that give birth to live young were included in the study.
The authors wrote in eLife that research on a larger number of species is needed to determine the strength of the findings.
The study made important contributions to understanding how pregnant women evolved. Modern medicine would benefit from the results.
He says that knowing which genes are active during pregnancy tells us about evolution. It tells us about what makes a healthy pregnant woman. The genes that set the right environment for healthy human pregnancies are being found. The genes might give rise to problems if they aren't expressed correctly.
More information: Katelyn Mika et al, Gene expression phylogenies and ancestral transcriptome reconstruction resolves major transitions in the origins of pregnancy, eLife (2022). DOI: 10.7554/eLife.74297 Journal information: eLife
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