As it develops from a single-celled zygote to a mature plant embryo, the thale cress Arabidopsis thaliana passes through a stage during which phylogenetically very ancient genes are preferentially expressed, showing that animals and plants have independently acquired the developmental hourglass as a similar way of managing gene expression as they pass through embryogenesis, even though their morphological development is very different.
- Marcel Quint
- Hajk-Georg Drost
- Ivo Grosse
