Data from: Latent homology and convergent regulatory evolution underlies the repeated emergence of yeasts

Convergent evolution is common throughout the tree of life, but the
molecular mechanisms causing similar phenotypes to appear repeatedly are
obscure. Yeasts have arisen in multiple fungal clades, but the genetic
causes and consequences of their evolutionary origins are unknown. Here we
show that the potential to develop yeast forms arose early in fungal
evolution and became dominant independently in multiple clades, most
likely via parallel diversification of Zn-cluster transcription factors, a
fungal-specific family involved in regulating yeast–filamentous switches.
Our results imply that convergent evolution can happen by the repeated
deployment of a conserved genetic toolkit for the same function in
distinct clades via regulatory evolution. We suggest that this mechanism
might be a common source of evolutionary convergence even at large time
scales.