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The Power of Simplicity: Sea Urchin Embryos as in Vivo Developmental Models for Studying Complex Cell-to-cell Signaling Network Interactions

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Unifying and generalizing the two strands of evo-devo.

Kevin J Parsons¹, R Craig Albertson

¹Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health & Comparative Medicine, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QQ, UK.

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

|July 24, 2013

Summary

Evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo) can unify mechanistic and quantitative approaches. Integrating genomics and molecular biology advances the study of adaptive phenotypic divergence in diverse taxa.

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Area of Science:

Evolutionary biology
Developmental biology
Genomics

Background:

Evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo) has transformed evolutionary studies.
Current evo-devo research is divided into mechanistic (typological, simple phenotypes) and quantitative (multidimensional phenotypes, lacking genetic mechanisms) approaches.

Purpose of the Study:

To propose a unified evo-devo approach integrating mechanistic and quantitative methods.
To enhance the explanatory power of evo-devo for adaptive phenotypic divergence.
To provide a generalized framework applicable to various taxa and quantitative traits.

Main Methods:

Review of recent literature in evo-devo, genomics, molecular biology, and morphometrics.
Development of a generalized evo-devo approach.
Application to studies of quantitative traits.

Main Results:

Recent technological advancements facilitate the reconciliation of different evo-devo approaches.
A unified approach can significantly increase the understanding of adaptive phenotypic divergence.
The proposed generalized approach is suitable for diverse taxa.

Conclusions:

Reconciliation of mechanistic and quantitative evo-devo is achievable and beneficial.
Technological progress is key to advancing evo-devo research.
A generalized evo-devo framework offers greater potential for studying evolutionary patterns and processes.