Evolution A Developmental Approach

by Arthur, Wallace

• ISBN13: 9781444337204
• ISBN10: 1444337203
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-01-25
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

This book is aimed at students taking courses on evolution in universities and colleges. Its approach and its structure are very different from previously-published evolution texts. The core theme in this book is how evolution works by changing the course of embryonic and post-embryonic development. In other words, it is an evolution text that has been very much influenced by the new approach of evolutionary developmental biology, or 'evo-devo'. Key themes include the following: developmental repatterning; adaptation and coadaptation; gene co-option; developmental plasticity; the origins of evolutionary novelties and body plans; and evolutionary changes in the complexity of organisms. As can be seen from this list, the book includes information across the levels of the gene, the organism, and the population. It also includes the issue of mapping developmental changes onto evolutionary trees. The examples used to illustrate particular points range widely, including animals, plants and fossils. "I have really enjoyed reading this book. One of the strengths of the book is the almost conversational style. I found the style easy to read, but also feel that it will be invaluable in teaching. One of our tasks in university level teaching is to develop students' critical thinking skills. We need to support them in their intellectual development from a "just the facts" approach to being able to make critical judgements based on available evidence. The openness and honesty with which Arthur speaks to uncertainty in science is refreshing and will be a baseline for discussions with students." -Professor Patricia Moore, Exeter University "This book, written as an undergraduate text, is a really most impressive book. Given the burgeoning interest in the role of developmental change in evolution in recent times, this will be a very timely publication. The book is well structured and, like the author's other books, very well written. He communicates with a clear, lucid style and has the ability to explain even the more difficult concepts in an accessible manner." ---Professor Kenneth McNamara, University of Cambridge

Author Biography

Wallace Arthur is Professor of Zoology at the National University of Ireland, Galway. He is one of the founding editors of the journal Evolution Development. He obtained his PhD from the University of Nottingham, and held positions at several British universities before moving to Galway in 2004. He has been a Visiting Research Scholar at Harvard University and a Visiting Associate of Darwin College, Cambridge.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. x
Foundations	p. 3
Introduction	p. 4
From Darwin to Development	p. 4
Development; and Evolutionary Changes in Development	p. 9
Development and the Realm of Multicellularity	p. 11
What is Evo-Devo?	p. 15
Forerunners of Evo-Devo	p. 15
Nineteenth-Century Comparative Embryology	p. 16
Diverse Antecedentsù1900-1980	p. 19
Conclusions from History; Messages for the Present	p. 24
The Advent of Evo-Devo in the 1980s	p. 25
Broad and Narrow Views of Evo-Devo	p. 27
Too Few Laws, Too Many Facts?	p. 28
Development, Cells and Molecules	p. 34
Analysing the Developing Organism	p. 34
Cells and Development; The Basics	p. 37
Genes: Structure, Expression and Developmental Function	p. 40
Signalling Pathways Within and Between Cells	p. 45
Signalling: From Cell to Embryo	p. 48
Long-Range Signalling and Developmental Processes	p. 51
Natural Populations	p. 54
The Ecological Theatre and the Evolutionary Play	p. 54
Types of Creature; Types of Population	p. 55
Spatial Structure	p. 60
Age Structure	p. 64
Genetic Structure	p. 65
Natural Selection	p. 67
Developmental Repatterning	p. 75
Mutation and Developmental Repatterning	p. 77
Mutation in Terms of Altered DNA Sequence	p. 77
Mutation in Terms of Proximate Functional Consequences	p. 80
Developmental Repatterning at Molecular and Higher Levels	p. 82
Developmental Repatterning at the Level of the Whole Organism	p. 88
Developmental Repatterning and Fitness	p. 89
Heterochrony	p. 93
What is Heterochrony?	p. 93
Types and Levels of Heterochrony	p. 94
Heterochrony at the Organismic Level	p. 95
Heterochrony at the Molecular Level	p. 99
Heterochrony and Fitness	p. 102
Heterotopy	p. 106
What is Heterotopy?	p. 106
Heterotopic Processes Involving Left-Right Asymmetry	p. 107
Heterotopic Processes Involving the A-P and D-V Axes	p. 112
Other Types of Heterotopy	p. 116
Concluding Remarks	p. 119
Heterometry	p. 121
What is Heterometry?	p. 121
Increasing Relative Size	p. 122
Decreasing Relative Size	p. 124
Bi-directional Heterometry	p. 128
Heterometric Compensation	p. 132
Heterotypy	p. 135
What is Heterotypy?	p. 135
Altered Products of Developmental Genes	p. 137
Altered Pigmentation	p. 139
Altered Morphology and the Origin of Novelty	p. 140
The Origin of New Cell Types	p. 144
The Integrative Nature of Repatterning	p. 148
Repatterning is a Complex Process	p. 148
Different Kinds of Repatterning can Produce a Similar Result	p. 149
Compound Repatterning at a Single Level of Organisation	p. 151
The Kind of Repatterning can Change Between Levels of Organisation	p. 155
Categories and Subcategories of Repatterning	p. 157
The Causes of Repatterning	p. 159
Mapping Repatterning to Trees	p. 161
Pattern, Process, Homology and Trees	p. 161
The Origin(s) of Animal Segmentation	p. 163
The Vertebrate Fin-to-Limb Transition	p. 169
The Origin of Flowers	p. 176
General Conclusions on Repatterning and Selection	p. 179
The Direction of Evolution	p. 183
Adaptation, Coadaptation and Exaptation	p. 185
Natural Selection on a Continuously Variable Character	p. 185
Natural Selection on Two Characters; and the Idea of an Adaptive Landscape	p. 190
Developmental and Functional Coadaptation	p. 191
Morphological Geometry and Selection	p. 194
Long-term Evolution and Exaptation	p. 196
Developmental Bias and Constraint	p. 200
A Key Question about Evolution's Direction	p. 200
Making Sure the Question is about Processes, not Terminology	p. 204
Dependence versus Independence of Different Characters	p. 208
Evo-Devo Meets Quantitative Genetics	p. 209
Developmental Bias and 'Routine' Evolution	p. 211
Developmental Bias and the Origin of Evolutionary Novelties	p. 216
Developmental Genes and Evolution	p. 218
The Direction of Evolution at the Developmental/Genetic Level	p. 218
Developmental Genes: An Overview	p. 219
Developmental Genes: Examples	p. 223
The Hox Genes	p. 225
Gene-Level Forms of Developmental Bias and Coadaptation	p. 230
Changes in Regulatory versus Coding Regions of Genes	p. 231
Gene Co-option as an Evolutionary Mechanism	p. 234
What is Gene Co-option?	p. 234
Co-option in the Evolution of Segments and Eyes	p. 237
Appendage Evolution and Gene Co-option	p. 241
Co-option in the Evolution of Zygomorphic Flowers	p. 244
Evolution of the 'Genetic Toolkit'	p. 245
Co-option, Exaptation and Developmental Bias	p. 249
Developmental Plasticity and Evolution	p. 252
Types of Developmental Plasticity	p. 252
Discrete Variants: Winged and Wingless Forms of Insects	p. 254
Meristic Variation: the Number of Segments in Centipedes	p. 257
Continuous Variation: Plant Growth	p. 259
Plasticity and Developmental Genes	p. 260
The Evolution of Patterns of Plasticity	p. 261
The Origin of Species, Novelties and Body Plans	p. 272
Is Evolution Scale-dependent?	p. 272
Speciation	p. 273
The Origin of Novelties	p. 281
Body Plans I: Overview	p. 284
Body Plans II: the Origin of the Vertebrates	p. 285
Body Plans III: the 'Cambrian Explosion'	p. 286
The Evolution of Complexity	p. 291
Defining Complexity	p. 291
The Lack of a 'Law of Increasing Complexity'	p. 293
Increases in the Complexity of Adults	p. 299
Changes in the Complexity of Life-histories	p. 302
Complexity at the Molecular Level	p. 306
Conclusions	p. 311
Key Concepts and Connections	p. 312
Introduction: From Original Idea to Mature Scientific Discipline	p. 312
A List of The Book's Main Points, and the Emergence of Key Concepts	p. 314
How do They Inter-Connect?	p. 319
Prospects	p. 327
Introduction: From the Present into the Future	p. 327
Molecular Evo-Devo	p. 327
Integrative Evo-Devo and General Evolutionary Theory	p. 332
Wider Challenges	p. 334
Glossary	p. 336
A Little Bit of History	p. 355
Naming of Genes and Proteins	p. 359
Geological Time	p. 363
Inferring Evolutionary Trees from Comparative Data	p. 366
References	p. 370
Index	p. 383
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