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11 - Perspective: The role of next generation sequencing for integrative approaches in evolutionary biology
- from Part III - Next Generation Challenges and Questions
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- By Ralf J. Sommer, Max-Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tübingen, Germany
- Edited by Peter D. Olson, Natural History Museum, London, Joseph Hughes, University of Glasgow, James A. Cotton
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- Book:
- Next Generation Systematics
- Published online:
- 05 June 2016
- Print publication:
- 16 June 2016, pp 229-236
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Summary
Introduction
During the last two decades, evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo) has established itself as an important new branch for the study of evolutionary patterns and processes. Evo-devo can provide insight into the mechanistic changes that result in evolutionary novelty. Besides the many successful applications of evo-devo in animals and plants there is, however, a need for a better integration of evo-devo with population genetics and evolutionary ecology (Sommer 2009). Work at the interface between these disciplines requires an interdisciplinary toolkit and can bring different research traditions closer together. Here, I argue that NGS approaches will play a pivotal role in bridging the different research traditions in contemporary evolutionary biology.
Evolutionary developmental biology: the missing link between development and evolution
Evolution is the change of the heritable characteristics of organisms over time. All biological systems evolve and they do so continuously, making evolution one of the most important properties of biology. The relationship between evolution and the ‘rest of biology’ is twofold: on the one hand, everything in biology has to be considered in the light of evolution (Dobzhansky 1964). On the other hand, our understanding about evolution and the historical processes associated with it depend heavily on the general knowledge available within the biological sciences. Therefore, progress in biology will always affect our understanding of evolutionary patterns and processes.
One recent example that indicates how evolutionary theory depends on progress in the biological sciences is the case of developmental biology. Developmental biology is a classical discipline within biology that has always been at the forefront of research and teaching, simply because all multicellular organisms go through ontogenesis. Until the 1980s, developmental biology was largely a descriptive discipline with a strong focus on cellular and histological mechanisms rather than genes (Amundson 2005). This has changed tremendously with the application of genetic tools and the establishment of selected model organisms. Initiated in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, embryonic development, and in particular segmentation, was dissected with a careful genetic analysis aiming for the identification of genes involved in the segmentation process (Nüsslein-Volhard 1995). Similar unbiased genetic approaches have also been used in the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans and the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana, providing mechanistic insight into various developmental processes, all of which has resulted in textbook knowledge (e.g. Wolpert 2007).
9 - Evolution and development: towards a synthesis of macro- and micro-evolution with ecology
- Edited by Alessandro Minelli, Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy
- Giuseppe Fusco, Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy
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- Book:
- Evolving Pathways
- Published online:
- 08 August 2009
- Print publication:
- 10 January 2008, pp 160-174
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Summary
Until our population-based evolutionary theory can be reconciled with our homology-based evolutionary theory, we live without a true synthesis of evolutionary thought.
Amundson 2005: 249–250Evolutionary theory is the philosophical backbone of biology. Interestingly, contemporary research in evolutionary biology involves several parallel lines of investigations that build on different philosophies and aim for different kinds of explanations and mechanisms. At its extreme, at least three independent research activities are actively promoted in evolutionary biology: neo-Darwinism with a population genetics research agenda analyses the evolution of populations by natural selection (Amundson 2005). Molecular phylogeny tries to reconstruct historical patterns and the phylogenetic relationship of organisms using cladistic approaches. And finally, comparative morphology, and more recent ‘evo-devo’ research, build on the evolution of ontogeny and try to show how modifications of development (ontogeny) result in evolutionary novelties (Valentine 2004, Kirschner and Gerhard 2005).
All of these agenda are actively propagated and they all consider themselves to follow the Darwinian logic. Surprisingly, however, there is hardly any cross-talk between these disciplines and even worse, these research fields ignore each other to a certain extent. Several authors have emphasised the different research strategies and philosophies in contemporary evolutionary biology, i.e. neo-Darwinism and evolutionary developmental biology (Wilkins 2002, Amundson 2005). Despite these obvious problems and lack of interactions, we are in need of a true synthesis of evolutionary thought. And such a synthesis must include both population genetic and developmental thinking. In this context, homology could be an important concept.
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