“…Accordingly, genes have been recruited non-randomly for certain functions in convergent innovations, 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 including pregnancy and placentation in fishes, reptiles, and mammals. 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 Similar to mammalian placentation, plug development depends on well-coordinated cell proliferation, ECM formation, and angiogenesis. To explore whether genes with important roles in mammalian placentas were also recruited into the plug, we analyzed expression of 41 one-to-one orthologs of the mammalian core placenta transcriptome.…”