Gene regulatory dynamics during craniofacial development in a carnivorous marsupial

Abstract

Marsupials and placental mammals exhibit significant differences in reproductive and life history strategies. Marsupials are born highly underdeveloped after an extremely short period of gestation, leading to prioritized development of structures critical for post-birth survival in the pouch. Critically, they must undergo accelerated development of the orofacial region compared to placentals. Previously, we described the accelerated development of the orofacial region in the carnivorous Australian marsupial, the fat-tailed dunnart Sminthopsis crassicaudata , that has one of the shortest gestations of any mammal. By combining genome comparisons of the m..