This course will focus on the integration of development with evolution: how developmental mechanisms evolve, and how aspects of development can influence the directions of morphological evolution. We will explore recent advances in developmental genetics, including how gene expression is regulated, and how genes interact with other genes, as well as with the environment, to orchestrate the construction of animal phenotypes. We will then use this information to examine VARIATION in animal phenotypes -- raw material for rapid and significant evolutionary transformations in form. “Evo-Devo” is one of the hottest topics in modern biology, and is considered by many to be one of the greatest ‘frontiers’ for future research.
Lectures will emphasize the most recent advances and controversies in each area. A few especially comprehensive (and elegant) long-term empirical studies will be used as foundations for illustrating the focal topics of this course. Examining these study systems in detail will reveal how modern research in these fields is conducted, and will illustrate how the integration of approaches (e.g. development with evolution) can provide an especially rich picture of how and why animal phenotypes have changed over time.
