Project 4
Developmental bias and the origin of adaptive variation

Led by Tobias Uller, Charlie Cornwallis & Per Lundberg

This project quantifies how widespread developmental bias is and how it impacts evolutionary innovation. Using recently developed statistical methods to analyse published datasets on how plants and animals respond to novel environments, we are characterising the magnitude and directionality of developmental bias in nature.

Publications

Developmental bias and evolution: A regulatory network perspective.
[download PDF]
Uller T, Moczek AP, Watson RA, Brakefield PM, Laland KN. 2018. Genetics DOI: 10.1534/genetics.118.300995.

Blog posts

Developmental bias and evolution
Uller T. 27 July 2018.

EES predictions this project tests

i. phenotypic accommodation can precede, rather than follow, genetic change, in adaptive evolution
ii. novel phenotypic variants will frequently be directional and functional
iii. novel, evolutionarily consequential, phenotypic variants will frequently be environmentally induced in multiple individuals
iv. strikingly different novel phenotypes can occur, either through mutation of a major regulatory control gene expressed in a tissue-specific manner, or through facilitated variation
v. repeated evolution in isolated populations may be due to convergent selection and/or developmental bias
viii. taxonomic diversity will sometimes be better explained by features of developmental systems (evolvability, constraints) than features of environments
ix. heritable variation will be systematically biased towards variants that are adaptive and well-integrated with existing aspects of the phenotype