Developmental Modules & Evolvability: The Gastropod Foregut as a Model

发展模块

• 批准号: RGPIN-2015-06484
• 负责人: Page, Louise
• 金额: $ 2.19万
• 依托单位: University of Victoria
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=591091
• 关键词: Developmental; Modules; Evolvability; Gastropod; Foregut

Why have some groups of organisms diversified explosively since their first appearance, while others have puttered along for millions of years without much change at all? This mystery is a core issue for the emerging field of Evolutionary Developmental Biology, which is dissatisfied with the traditional view that natural selection acting on random, genetically-specified variation among offspring provides the complete story about how species evolve. Although selection is clearly important, evolutionary developmental biologists emphasize that transfer of information from genotype to phenotype occurs via the process of development and developmental organization can influence the amount and kind of variation produced as raw material for selection. The prevailing hypothesis suggests that the greatest amount of ‘evolvability’ will be found among developmental systems organized into semi-autonomous modules that can spin off variant phenotypes without disrupting the developmental integrity of whole complex structures. This hypothesis is conceptually appealing but its validity depends on finding systems in which a link between high rates of evolution and a modular organization of development can be demonstrated.

为什么有些生物体自首次出现以来就发生了爆炸性的多样化，而另一些生物体却缓慢地发展了数百万年而没有发生太大变化？这个谜团是新兴的进化发育生物学领域的一个核心问题，它对传统观点感到不满。自然选择作用于后代中随机的、遗传特异的变异，提供了关于物种如何进化的完整故事，尽管选择显然很重要，但进化发育生物学家强调，信息从基因型到表型的转移是通过发育过程和发育组织发生的。影响普遍的假设表明，在组织成半自主模块的发育系统中，可以发现最大量的“进化性”，这些模块可以在不破坏整个复合体的发育完整性的情况下产生变异表型。这个假设在概念上很有吸引力，但其有效性取决于找到可以证明高进化率和模块化发展组织之间联系的系统。