# s-gst-evol: tiny tweaks to modulate hairy bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta)

<< Millions of years ago, some plants in the mustard family made the switch from simple leaves to complex leaves through two tiny tweaks to a single gene. One tweak to a small enhancer sequence gave the gene a new domain of expression in the leaf. Paradoxically, the other tweak sub-optimised its function in this new domain. But together, these changes gave rise to fit plants with complex leaves. >>

P. Huijser. A small piece of DNA with a large effect on leaf shape. Nov. 17, 2016

http://m.phys.org/news/2016-11-small-piece-dna-large-effect.html

Francesco Vuolo, Remco A. Mentink et al. Coupled enhancer and coding sequence evolution of a homeobox gene shaped leaf diversity. Genes & Development (2016). Nov.16, 2016, doi: 10.1101/gad.290684.116

http://m.genesdev.cshlp.org/content/early/2016/11/16/gad.290684.116