A. Richard Palmer, University of Alberta
Biological Sciences
Professor
Edmonton, Alberta
rich.palmer@ualberta.ca
Office:
(780) 492-3633
Expert In
Bio/Research
Evolution by natural selection requires three steps: New phenotypic variation 1) must arise, 2) must have an impact on fitness (survival or fecundity), and 3) must (ultimately) be heritable. The first step - how new variation arises - remains controversial. Traditionally, new phenotypes are ascri...
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Bio/Research
Evolution by natural selection requires three steps: New phenotypic variation 1) must arise, 2) must have an impact on fitness (survival or fecundity), and 3) must (ultimately) be heritable. The first step - how new variation arises - remains controversial. Traditionally, new phenotypes are ascribed to novel genotypes (mutants or recombinant). But developmental plasticity - the same genotype yields different forms in different environments - may be a much more important source of new phenotypes than generally recognized. This has renewed interest in its evolutionary significance.
Our work has yielded valuable insights into the causes and adaptive significance of several striking examples of developmental plasticity and our studies of the development, genetics and evolutionary history of right-left asymmetry variation have yielded some of the strongest evidence to date for a phenotype-leads mode of evolution (sometimes called genetic assimilation) -- a result that caught the attention of the Pharyngula blog. We continue to explore the interplay between developmental plasticity and evolution on both ecological time scales (via descriptive and experimental studies) and evolutionary time scales (via comparative studies).
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Our work has yielded valuable insights into the causes and adaptive significance of several striking examples of developmental plasticity and our studies of the development, genetics and evolutionary history of right-left asymmetry variation have yielded some of the strongest evidence to date for a phenotype-leads mode of evolution (sometimes called genetic assimilation) -- a result that caught the attention of the Pharyngula blog. We continue to explore the interplay between developmental plasticity and evolution on both ecological time scales (via descriptive and experimental studies) and evolutionary time scales (via comparative studies).
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