The Interaction of Evolution and Development in Biology ("Evo-Devo")

Last update: 11 Dec 2024 10:05
First version: 5 November 2024

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Long ago, biologists like Bonner, and the even earlier J. H. Woodger, advocated thinking of the whole four-dimensional developmental sequence or program as the phenotype-which-evolves and which selection acts upon. This point of view is increasingly a part of biology, in conjunction with something which I do not think those Worthy Ancestors anticipated, viz., development processes themselves acting as constraints on evolution...

Things to learn more about: Conservation of genes important in development, e.g. hox. Conservation of body plans, and whether this is any more than a statistical artifact. (I remember reading that argument from G. C. Williams sometime in the 1990s, but cannot now recover where.)

See also:
• Developmental Biology
• Evolutionary Biology
• Evolution of Complexity
• Self-Organization
• Slime Molds, especially Dictyostelium

Recommended, big picture:
• John Tyler Bonner, On Development: The Biology of Form
• John Gerhart and Marc Kirschner, Cells, Embryos, and Evolution: Toward a Cellular and Developmental Understanding of Phenotypic Variation and Evolutionary Adaptability [Review by Danny Yee]
• Rudolf Raff, The Shape of Life: Genes, Development, and the Evolution of Animal Form
• Stuart Kauffman, The Origins of Order: Self-Organization and Selection in Evolution [Brief comments]

Recommended, close-ups:
• Lauren W. Ancel and Walter Fontana, "Plasticity, Evolvability and Modularity in RNA," Journal of Experimental Zoology (Molecular and Developmental Evolution), 288 (2000): 242--283 [Reprint]
• Jennie J. Kuzdzal-Fick, Sara A. Fox, Joan E. Strassmann and David C. Queller, "High Relatedness Is Necessary and Sufficient to Maintain Multicellularity in Dictyostelium", Science 334 (2011): 1548--1551

To read:
• Wallace Arthur
  • Biased Embryos and Evolution
  • The Origin of Animal Body Plans: A Study in Evolutionary Developmental Biology
• Leo W. Buss, The Evolution of Individuality
• Werner Callebaut and Diego Rasskin-Gutman (eds.), Modularity: Understanding the Development and Evolution of Natural Complex Systems
• Sean B. Carroll, From DNA to Diversity: Molecular Genetics and the Evolution of Animal Design
• Eric Davidson
  • Genomic Regulatory Systems: Development and Evolution
  • The Regulatory Genome: Gene Regulatory Networks in Development and Evolution
• Eric Davidson
  • Genomic Regulatory Systems: Development and Evolution
  • The Regulatory Genome: Gene Regulatory Networks in Development and Evolution
• Gunther Eble, "The Role of Development in Evolutionary Radiations," in M. L. McKinney (ed.), Biodiversity Dynamics = SFI Working Paper 98-09-084
• Frietson Galis, Johan A.J. Metz, and Jacques J.M. van Alphen, "Development and Evolutionary Constraints in Animals", Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 49 (2018): 499--522
• Matthew D. Herron, Joshua M. Borin, Jacob C. Boswell, Jillian Walker, I-Chen Kimberly Chen, Charles A. Knox, Margrethe Boyd, Frank Rosenzweig and William C. Ratcliff, "De novo origins of multicellularity in response to predation", Scientific Reports 9 (2019): 2328
• Marc Kirschner and John Gerhart, The Plausibility of Life [Capsule review by Frenando Pereira]
• Kevin N. Lala, Tobias Uller, Nathalie Feiner, Marcus Feldman and Scott F. Gilbert, Evolution Evolving: The Developmental Origins of Adaptation and Biodiversity
• Volker Loeschcke, ed., Genetic Constraints on Adaptive Evolution
• Alessandro Minelli, The Development of Animal Form: Ontogeny, Morphology and Evolution
• Susan Oyama, The Ontogeny of Information: Developmental Systems and Evolution
• Roger Sansom Ingenious Genes: How Gene Regulation Networks Evolve to Control Ontogeny
• Gerhard Schlosser and Gunter P. Wagner (eds.), Modules, Development and Evolution
• Ricard V. Solé, Isaac Salazar-Ciudad and Jordi Garcia-Fernández, "Landscapes, Gene Networks and Pattern Formation: On the Cambrian Explosion," SFI Working Paper 00-08-046
• Gunte P. Wagner, Chris Amemiya and Frank Ruddle, "Hox cluster duplications and the opportunity for evolutionary novelties", PNAS 100 (2003): 14603--14606
• Günter P. Wagner, Homology, Genes, and Evolutionary Innovation
• Mary Jane West-Eberhard, Developmental Plasticity and Evolution
• Adam S. Wilkins, The Evolution of Developmental Pathways