Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 23, 2026
07:59
Using a Comparative Species Approach to Investigate the Neurobiology of Paternal Responses
Published on: September 19, 2011
Plants compared to animals: the broadest comparative study of development.
1Division of Biology 156-29, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA. meyerow@its.caltech.edu
Science (New York, N.Y.)
|February 23, 2002
Summary
Developmental mechanisms in plants and animals evolved independently. Comparing these distinct evolutionary paths offers a unique insight into the independent invention of development in each lineage.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary developmental biology
- Comparative genomics
Background:
- The last common ancestor of plants and animals was unicellular.
- Understanding the independent evolution of developmental mechanisms is crucial for comparative biology.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether developmental mechanisms evolved independently in plant and animal lineages.
- To establish a truly comparative study of development by examining distinct evolutionary paths.
Main Methods:
- Comparative analysis of developmental mechanisms across plant and animal kingdoms.
- Genome sequencing data analysis.
Main Results:
- Evidence suggests that developmental mechanisms were independently invented in plants and animals.
- Fundamental developmental mechanisms show similarity by descent within each lineage, but not between them.
Conclusions:
- Development evolved independently in the lineages leading to plants and animals.
- Comparing plant and animal development provides a unique perspective due to their separate evolutionary origins.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
01:23Phylogeny
Phylogeny is concerned with the evolutionary diversification of organisms or groups of organisms. A group of organisms with a name is called a taxon (singular). Taxa (plural) can span different levels of the evolutionary hierarchy. For instance, the group containing all birds is a taxon (comprising the class Aves), and the group of all species of daisies (the genus Bellis) is a taxon. Phylogenies can likewise include just one genus (i.e., depict species relationships) or span an entire...
02:22The Colonization of Land
Changes in the environment of the early Earth drove the evolution of organisms. As prokaryotic organisms in the oceans began to photosynthesize, they produced oxygen. Eventually, oxygen saturated the oceans and entered the air, resulting in an increase in atmospheric oxygen concentration, known as the oxygen revolution approximately 2.3 billion years ago. Therefore, organisms that could use oxygen for cellular respiration had an advantage. More than 1.5 years ago, eukaryotic cells and...
02:22Introduction to Plant Diversity
From Water to Land
02:26Non-vascular Seedless Plants
The diverse plant life on Earth—consisting of nearly 400,000 species—can be divided into three broad categories based on biological characteristics: nonvascular, seedless vascular, and seed plants.
02:55The Evidence for Evolution
Genetic variations accumulating within populations over generations give rise to biological evolution. Evolutionary changes can result in the formation of novel varieties and entire new species. These changes are responsible for the diverse forms of life inhabiting the planet. The evidence for evolution suggests that all living organisms descended from common ancestors.The collection of fossils within sedimentary rocks give a record of common ancestry and often depicts the history of evolution.
02:54Evolutionary Relationships through Genome Comparisons
Genome comparison is one of the excellent ways to interpret the evolutionary relationships between organisms. The basic principle of genome comparison is that if two species share a common feature, it is likely encoded by the DNA sequence conserved between both species. The advent of genome sequencing technologies in the late 20th century enabled scientists to understand the concept of conservation of domains between species and helped them to deduce evolutionary relationships across diverse...