title: Metamodels and phylogenetic replication: a systematic approach to the evolution of developmental pathways.
abstract: Molecular genetic analysis of phenotypic variation has revealed many examples of evolutionary change in the developmental pathways that control plant and animal morphology. A major challenge is to integrate the information from diverse organisms and traits to understand the general patterns of developmental evolution. This integration can be facilitated by evolutionary metamodels-traits that have undergone multiple independent changes in different species and whose development is controlled by well-studied regulatory pathways. The metamodel approach provides the comparative equivalent of experimental replication, allowing us to test whether the evolution of each developmental pathway follows a consistent pattern, and whether different pathways are predisposed to different modes of evolution by their intrinsic organization. A review of several metamodels suggests that the structure of developmental pathways may bias the genetic basis of phenotypic evolution, and highlights phylogenetic replication as a value-added approach that produces deeper insights into the mechanisms of evolution than single-species analyses.
authors: Department of Evolution and Ecology, University of California-Davis, Davis, California 95616, USA. akopp@ucdavis.edu
authors: Artyom
authors: A
authors: Kopp
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010802:Phylogeny; D010944:Plants / Q000235:genetics