{"id":12393,"date":"2018-02-21T20:00:16","date_gmt":"2018-02-21T19:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.embl.de\/?p=12393"},"modified":"2024-03-23T21:50:45","modified_gmt":"2024-03-23T20:50:45","slug":"retinoic-acid-evolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/retinoic-acid-evolution\/","title":{"rendered":"Insights into the evolution of a signalling molecule"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Among developmental biologists, the signalling molecule retinoic acid is well known for its role in building the vertebrate body. Not much is known, however, about how such signals emerge in evolution. To investigate this, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.embl.de\/research\/units\/dev_biology\/arendt\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Arendt lab<\/a> at EMBL in Heidelberg have studied the role of retinoic acid signalling in a marine worm. In the study published in <em>Science Advances<\/em>, the team and their collaborators show that in the worm, retinoic acid acts like a metabolic timer that helps neurons to form at the right time and place during development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EMBL scientists discover how a molecule\u2019s role changes from simple metabolite to instructive signal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":12394,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17591],"tags":[417,55,31,43,559,539,56],"embl_taxonomy":[],"class_list":["post-12393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","category-science-technology","tag-arendt","tag-development","tag-evolution","tag-heidelberg","tag-origin","tag-research-highlight","tag-signalling"],"acf":{"article_intro":"<p>EMBL scientists discover how a molecule\u2019s role changes from simple metabolite to instructive signal<\/p>\n","related_links":[{"link_description":"Arendt group","link_url":"https:\/\/www.embl.de\/research\/units\/dev_biology\/arendt\/index.html?_ga=2.204719248.1803463084.1519117394-1549291272.1519117394"}],"article_sources":[{"source_description":"<p>Handberg-Thorsager M,\u00a0Gutierrez-Mazariegos J\u00a0<em>et al.,\u00a0<\/em>The ancestral retinoic acid receptor was a low-affinity sensor triggering neuronal differentiation,\u00a0<em>Science Advances,<\/em>\u00a0published online 21 February, 2018. DOI:\u00a010.1126\/sciadv.aao1261<\/p>\n","source_link_url":"http:\/\/advances.sciencemag.org\/content\/4\/2\/eaao1261"}],"vf_locked":false,"featured":false,"color":"#007B53"},"embl_taxonomy_terms":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Insights into evolution of retinoic acid | EMBL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"EMBL scientists discover how the role of retinoic acid evolved from simple metabolite to instructive signal.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/retinoic-acid-evolution\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Insights into evolution of retinoic acid | EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"EMBL scientists discover how the role of retinoic acid evolved from simple metabolite to instructive signal.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/retinoic-acid-evolution\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embl.org\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-02-21T19:00:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-03-23T20:50:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Fig5CBanner.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"425\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Emma Steer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@embl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@embl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Emma Steer\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/retinoic-acid-evolution\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/retinoic-acid-evolution\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Emma Steer\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4c1a1fd8d38ed9a5cf0d0020048f6443\"},\"headline\":\"Insights into the evolution of a signalling molecule\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-02-21T19:00:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-23T20:50:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/retinoic-acid-evolution\/\"},\"wordCount\":98,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/retinoic-acid-evolution\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Fig5CBanner.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"arendt\",\"development\",\"evolution\",\"heidelberg\",\"origin\",\"research highlight\",\"signalling\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Science\",\"Science &amp; Technology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/retinoic-acid-evolution\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/retinoic-acid-evolution\/\",\"name\":\"Insights into evolution of retinoic acid | EMBL\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/retinoic-acid-evolution\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/retinoic-acid-evolution\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Fig5CBanner.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-02-21T19:00:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-23T20:50:45+00:00\",\"description\":\"EMBL scientists discover how the role of retinoic acid evolved from simple metabolite to instructive signal.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/retinoic-acid-evolution\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/retinoic-acid-evolution\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Fig5CBanner.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Fig5CBanner.jpg\",\"width\":620,\"height\":425,\"caption\":\"Retinoic acid signalling is crucial for the marine worm\u2019s nervous system (green) to develop. 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