EvoDevo: An Ongoing Revolution?

Salvatore Ivan Amato

doi:10.3390/philosophies5040035

Abstract

Since its appearance, Evolutionary Developmental Biology (EvoDevo) has been called an emerging research program, a new paradigm, a new interdisciplinary field, or even a revolution. Behind these formulas, there is the awareness that something is changing in biology. EvoDevo is characterized by a variety of accounts and by an expanding theoretical framework. From an epistemological point of view, what is the relationship between EvoDevo and previous biological tradition? Is EvoDevo the carrier of a new message about how to conceive evolution and development? Furthermore, is it necessary to rethink the way we look at both of these processes? EvoDevo represents the attempt to synthesize two logics, that of evolution and that of development, and the way we conceive one affects the other. This synthesis is far from being fulfilled, but an adequate theory of development may represent a further step towards this achievement. In this article, an epistemological analysis of EvoDevo is presented, with particular attention paid to the relations to the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES) and the Standard Evolutionary Synthesis (SET).

Highlights

The House That Charles BuiltEvolutionary biology, as well as science in general, is characterized by a continuous genealogy of problems, i.e., “a kind of dialectical sequence” of problems that are “linked together in a continuous family tree” [1] (p. 148).Let’s start with Charles Darwin, whose masterpiece On the Origin of Species still has a fundamental influence on biological thinking [2]
Evolution was defined as a change in the frequency of an allele within a gene pool [5] or, in a simpler way, “biological evolution consists of changes in the genetic constitution of populations” [6] (p. 21)
A revolutionary event in the history of developmental genetics, so prominent that for some authors it represents the birth of the EvoDevo [17], has been the discovery of the homeobox [38,39] and of the role that this plays in the evolution and development of animal forms

Summary

Introduction

Evolutionary biology, as well as science in general, is characterized by a continuous genealogy of problems, i.e., “a kind of dialectical sequence” of problems that are “linked together in a continuous family tree” [1] (p. 148). Within the Modern Synthesis (MS), particular emphasis was placed on the role of natural selection and genes, the latter being conceived both as unit of variation and unit of inheritance In this framework, evolution was defined as a change in the frequency of an allele within a gene pool [5] or, in a simpler way, “biological evolution consists of changes in the genetic constitution of populations” [6] It is composed of a variety of research programs, such as comparative embryology and morphology programs, evolutionary developmental genetics programs, experimental epigenetic programs, and theoretical and computational programs [12,24] It is guided by several questions concerning the relationships between evolution, development, and environment [10,12]. Not afflicted by a comparable existential drama, we could say that the situation of the EvoDevo is similar, in some respects, to that of Vitangelo Moscarda

One EvoDevo

No One EvoDevo

One Hundred Thousand EvoDevo

The Search for Unity

A Synthesis within a Synthesis

Conclusions