{"doi":"10.1101/2020.12.23.424223","title":"Species-specific sensitivity to TGFβ signaling and changes to the Mmp13 promoter underlie avian jaw development and evolution","abstract":"ABSTRACT Developmental control of jaw length is critical for survival. The jaw skeleton arises from neural crest mesenchyme and previously we demonstrated that these progenitors upregulate bone-resorbing enzymes including Matrix metalloproteinase 13 ( Mmp13) when generating short quail beaks versus long duck bills. Inhibiting bone resorption or Mmp13 increases jaw length. Here, we uncover mechanisms establishing species-specific levels of Mmp13 and bone resorption. Quail show greater activation of, and sensitivity to Transforming Growth Factor-Beta ( TGFβ ) signaling than duck; where mediators like SMADs and targets like Runx2, which bind Mmp13 , become elevated. Inhibiting TGFβ signaling decreases bone resorption. We discover a SMAD binding element in the quail Mmp13 promoter not found in duck and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) near a RUNX2 binding element that affect expression. Switching the SNPs and SMAD site abolishes TGFβ-sensitivity in the quail Mmp13 promoter but makes duck responsive. Thus, differential regulation of TGFβ signaling and Mmp13 promoter structure underlie avian jaw development and evolution.","journal":"bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)","year":2020,"id":127859,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9549,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":440025,"name":"Daniel B. Chu","orcid":"0000-0003-3697-8003","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":329360,"name":"Tiange Qu","orcid":"0000-0001-5132-4484","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":440028,"name":"Richard A. Schneider","orcid":"0000-0002-2626-3111","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":440027,"name":"Spenser S. Smith","orcid":"0000-0002-3984-3174","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":229,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:15:34.966380Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}