Lineage-specific, fast-evolving GATA-like gene regulates zygotic gene activation to promote endoderm specification and pattern formation in the Theridiidae spider.

Our genome-based research using an arthropod phylogenetically distant from Drosophila identifies a lineage-specific, fast-evolving gene with key developmental roles in one of the earliest, genome-wide regulatory events, and allows for molecular exploration of the developmental variations in early arthropod embryos.