Ch 13 Flashcards
Homeotic mutations are what?
Body parts replacing other ones. This approach of homeotic studies are called evo-devo. (incorporates developmental biology into evolutionary biology)
What did William Bateson do? (3)
Translated Mendel’s works into English
Named science of Genetics
& documented homeotic mutations (and what it tells us about evolutionary change)
What did Bateson recognize about homeotic mutations and their commonality?
Homo mutations were most common in parts of the body that were segmented, repeated, or both.
What did Bateson hypothesize on homeotic mutation?
It would allow for deciphering evolution of animal body plan
What is developmental biology?
Studying development of the animal from egg into multiple cells and then into an embryo with various incipient organs & tissues and finally into adult form with full-grown internal and external structures.
Parallelism & its proponent was who?
Development stages mirrored scalae naturae in going from simple thru complex
JF Meckel
von Baer’s Law
General characteristics of embryos in closely related species develop before specific characteristics, and embryos of higher taxa do not resemble the adult form of ancestral lower-taxa sp.
What is special about embryos appearing similar early on embryonic development?
Resistant to evolutionary change & presumably changes early on have large consequences
When do specialized traits appear that distinguish species?
Later on during development, von Baer agued against Darwin
Ontogeny
a precise and compressed recapitulation of phylogeny; ontogeny of an organism replays its evolutionary history
What did some work in the 30’s and 40’s demonstrate about genes?
Genes code for physical traits, rate of development, and timing at which developmental stages occur
define heterochrony
changes in the rate and timing of development
What was Gavin de Beer interested in? (think of heterochrony)
Interested in whether the time at which a trait was first expressed in a given species occurred EARLIER or LATER than it had occurred in an ancestral species
What are the 4 recognized types of heterochrony?
- acceleration
- progenesis
- neoteny
- hypermorphosis
What are the two categories of heterochrony?
- changes that affect the timing of the onset of reproductive traits
- changes that affect the timing of the appearances of non-reproductive (somatic) traits
Recapitulation observes what?
-observes trait formerly seen in adult stage of an ancestral species now appearing in juvenile stage in species derived from that ancestral species.
What is accelerated in recapitulation?
Somatic trait is accelerated relative to the appearance of reproductive traits
*deals with relative timing: somatic traits can appear earlier in devo (acceleration) while reproductive traits can appear later (be retarded) in devo (hypermorphosis)
What is Paedomorphosis?
Appearances of traits formerly seen in juvenile stage of a species during the adult stage in a descendant species
What are the two possible ways paedomorphosis can occur?
- reproductive traits appearing earlier (progenesis)
- onset of somatic traits is retarded (neoteny)
What serves as an example of neoteny?
Mexican salamander; matures into normal reproductive adult but never loses aquatic traits, adult somatic traits are extremely retarded
What plays a role in neoteny of the Mexican salamander?
Lack of thyroid hormone (TH); spike is never seen at transition to terrestrial life-style as in other salamanders.
If TH is added to developing M. salamander, they develop like other salamanders.