Answer:
Bridgham et al. (2006) showed that the interaction between a steroid hormone (aldosterone-M) and its receptor (mineralocorticoid) evolved by Darwinian gradualism. In this work, the authors demonstrated a primitive affinity between the hormone and its receptor that was initially present in chemically similar but more ancient ligands. This result has implications in understanding the association between gene duplication and the evolution of hormone signaling pathways. For example, in invertebrates, this work reinforces the importance of gene duplication in the existing interaction between paralogous glucocorticoid receptors and their receptor mineralocorticoid genes that were derived from duplication (Thornton 2001).
The publications above cited are the following:
J.T. Bridgham, S.M. Carroll, and J.W. Thornton (2006). Evolution of hormone-receptor complexity by molecular exploitation. Science, 312(5770), 97-101.
JW Thornton. Evolution of vertebrate steroid receptors from an ancestral estrogen receptor by ligand exploitation and serial genome expansions, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (PNAS), 2001, vol. 98 10 (pg. 5671-5676).
The changes that occur in body size, proportions, and skeletal maturity during the middle childhood include; Bones continues to strengthen and broaden, permanent teeth replace the primary teeth, normally a third of school age children suffer from malocclusions, making braces common by the end of elementary school. Additionally, the children's growth is slow and regular though large individual and ethics variations exists in the physical growth. <span />
