"Evolutionary developmental biology (informally, evo-devo) is a field of biological research that compares the developmental processes of different organisms to infer how developmental processes evolved."
Study of the ways in which developmental processes and mechanisms have evolved across different species and lineages.
Genetics: The study of heredity and variation of traits.
Molecular Biology: The study of biological molecules, their structure, and function.
Embryonic Development: The study of the development of embryos and their morphogenesis.
Comparative Anatomy: The study of the similarities and differences between the structure of organisms.
Evo-Devo: The study of the interaction between evolution and development.
Phylogenetics: The study of the evolutionary relationships between organisms.
Regulatory Networks: The study of the complex interplay between genes, proteins, and other molecules.
Epigenetics: The study of the changes in the expression of genes over time and their relationship to environmental factors.
Developmental Genetics: The study of genes and their role in the development of organisms.
Genomics: The study of the complete genetic makeup of an organism.
Morphology: The study of the form and structure of living organisms.
Evolutionary Biology: The study of the origin and diversity of species and their evolution over time.
Cell Biology: The study of the cell and its function.
Developmental Plasticity: The study of the ability of organisms to alter their development in response to environmental cues.
Pattern Formation: The study of the mechanisms that govern the formation of patterns in organisms.
Evo-Devo: This field focuses on how evolutionary changes have affected the development of organisms at the genetic and molecular level.
Developmental Genetics: This field studies how genes and their expression patterns are involved in organismal development and how mutations in these genes can lead to developmental abnormalities or variations.
Morphometrics: This field measures and analyses the form and shape of organisms to understand how they have evolved over time.
Phylogenetics: This field studies the evolutionary relationships and history of organisms based on their genetic and morphological data.
Comparative Embryology: This field studies the similarities and differences in embryonic development among different species, which can provide insights into evolutionary history.
Paleontology: This field studies the fossil records of organisms to understand their evolutionary history and development over time.
Evolutionary Ecology: This field studies how developmental changes affect an organism's interactions with its environment and how these changes have evolved over time.
Evolutionary Genomics: This field studies how DNA sequences have been modified or conserved during evolution, and how these changes have affected the development of organisms.
Evo-Devo Evo: This field studies how the evolution of developmental genes or traits have been influenced by ecological or social factors.
"Zoologists did not know how embryonic development was controlled at the molecular level."
"Charles Darwin noted that having similar embryos implied common ancestry."
"Little progress was made until the 1970s. Then, recombinant DNA technology at last brought embryology together with molecular genetics."
"A key early discovery was of homeotic genes that regulate development in a wide range of eukaryotes."
"One is deep homology, the finding that dissimilar organs such as the eyes of insects, vertebrates and cephalopod molluscs, long thought to have evolved separately, are controlled by similar genes such as pax-6, from the evo-devo gene toolkit."
"Dissimilar organs... are controlled by similar genes."
"These genes are ancient, being highly conserved among phyla; they generate the patterns in time and space which shape the embryo, and ultimately form the body plan of the organism."
"Species do not differ much in their structural genes, such as those coding for enzymes."
"What does differ is the way that gene expression is regulated by the toolkit genes."
"This multiple pleiotropic reuse explains why these genes are highly conserved, as any change would have many adverse consequences which natural selection would oppose."
"New morphological features and ultimately new species are produced by variations in the toolkit."
"Either when genes are expressed in a new pattern, or when toolkit genes acquire additional functions."
"Another possibility is the neo-Lamarckian theory that epigenetic changes are later consolidated at the gene level, something that may have been important early in the history of multicellular life."
"Species do not differ much in their structural genes, such as those coding for enzymes."
"Then, recombinant DNA technology at last brought embryology together with molecular genetics."
"Dissimilar organs such as the eyes of insects, vertebrates and cephalopod molluscs."
"To compare the developmental processes of different organisms to infer how developmental processes evolved."
"These genes are reused, unchanged, many times in different parts of the embryo and at different stages of development, forming a complex cascade of control."
"This multiple pleiotropic reuse explains why these genes are highly conserved, as any change would have many adverse consequences which natural selection would oppose."