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Riedl's burden and the body plan: selection, constraint, and deep time.
1Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde, Rosenstein 1, Stuttgart, Germany. schoch.smns@naturkundemuseum-bw.de
Summary
Rupert Riedl's concept of organismic burden explains how tightly integrated traits conserve body plans and constrain evolution. A modified burden concept, combined with evolvability, may enhance understanding of long-term evolutionary patterns.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary biology
- Developmental biology (Evo-Devo)
Background:
- Rupert Riedl's concept of burden posits hierarchically nested interdependence of organismic characters.
- Burden was hypothesized to define and conserve body plans, while constraining evolutionary trajectories.
Discussion:
- Riedl's burden concept shows consistencies with modern evo-devo principles.
- It contrasts with current evolutionary theory by limiting evolutionary options for integrated traits and suggesting decreasing evolutionary freedom.
- The concept aligns with the Modern Synthesis, explaining macroevolutionary trends via gradualistic processes.
Key Insights:
- The burden concept uniquely emphasizes hierarchically nested constraints, mirroring gene regulatory network architecture.
- Gene regulatory networks, while more high-dimensional, offer greater evolvability for their components compared to Riedl's burden.
- Riedl's concept suggests evolutionary "locked-in" characters and macroevolutionary phenomena like cyclism and typostrophism.
Outlook:
- A modified burden concept, integrated with evolvability, could significantly advance the understanding of organismic integration.
- This approach may offer new insights into the long-term evolution of body plans.
- Further research could explore the interplay between hierarchical constraints and evolutionary potential.
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