Intraspecific Variation in Developmental Characters: The Origin of Evolutionary Novelties |
| |
Authors: | Arthur Wallace |
| |
Institution: | 1 Ecology Centre, University of Sunderland, Sunderland SR1 3SD, United Kingdom |
| |
Abstract: | Evolutionary developmental biology is inevitably a comparativesubject. However, the taxonomic level at which comparisons canbe made varies widely, and this greatly affects the kind ofinformation that can be gained from the comparison. Broadlyspeaking, high-level comparisons (e.g., between phyla) are moreinformative about phylogenetic pattern and homology, while low-levelcomparisons (e.g., between congeneric species) are more informativeabout evolutionary mechanisms, including speciation. However,so far evolutionary developmental biology has had a relativelyminor input into the traditional territory of population genetics,namely comparisons within speciesboth within and betweengeographic populations. Yet this area is crucial, as all evolutionarynovelties ultimately arise from intraspecific variation. Here,I address this issue, focusing on the question of how earlyin development novelties arise. To shed light on this question,I discuss two examples of developmental polymorphism withinspecies involving two of the main body axes: anteroposteriorsegmentation in centipedes and leftright asymmetry (chirality)in gastropods. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 Oxford 等数据库收录! |
|