Manuel Irimia @mirimiam.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Across evolution, the reach of these mechanisms was huge: together, TS-AS and TS-GE affected nearly 75% of ancestral bilaterian gene families. Some families used only one route, while ~30% evolved both across different species. 6/11 100
Manuel Irimia @mirimiam.bsky.social · 05/10/2026We then asked how conserved these regulatory programs are. Overall, TS-GE was substantially more conserved than TS-AS, while neural tissue showed the highest conservation for both mechanisms. 7/11 100
Manuel Irimia @mirimiam.bsky.social · 05/10/2026But here came a first surprise: at the origins of both vertebrates and insects, gains of neural-specific splicing actually outnumbered gains of neural-specific gene expression, pointing to a major early contribution of TS-AS to nervous-system diversification. 8/11 100
