Abstract
The description and comparison of morphological features has been an integral part of evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo) from the early comparative embryology in the late nineteenth century to the revival of the discipline in the late twentieth century. The success of modern evo-devo research was fueled by an exciting accumulation of experimental data revealing central mechanisms underlying developmental processes in a few well-established model organisms. Recent advances in imaging and sequencing technologies allow for an in-depth genome-wide and highly quantitative comparison of developmental processes in a variety of organisms. The combination of this quantitative data with the establishment of theoretical and mathematical frameworks to integrate and analyze such data provides an excellent starting point to reveal the evolutionary, genetic, developmental, and ecological forces underlying the morphological diversification in Nature. In this chapter, I summarize key features of qualitative and quantitative phenotyping methods, highlighting advantages and potential limitations. Additionally, I argue that gene expression represents an intermediate phenotype that has the potential to link genotypic and epigenetic changes with the evolution of developmental processes and thus adult morphology.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Böhmer C, Rauhut OWM, Wörheide G (2015) Correlation between Hox code and vertebral morphology in archosaurs. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 282(1810):20150077. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.0077
Carroll SB (2008) Evo-devo and an expanding evolutionary synthesis: a genetic theory of morphological evolution. Cell 134(1):25–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2008.06.030
Hoekstra HE (2006) Genetics, development and evolution of adaptive pigmentation in vertebrates. Heredity 97(3):222–234. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.hdy.6800861
Hughes CL, Kaufman TC (2002) Hox genes and the evolution of the arthropod body plan1. Evol Dev 4(6):459–499. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1525-142X.2002.02034.x
Jacobs CGC, Spaink HP, van der Zee M (2014) The extraembryonic serosa is a frontier epithelium providing the insect egg with a full-range innate immune response. eLife 3. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.04111
Karaiskos N, Wahle P, Alles J, Boltengagen A, Ayoub S, Kipar C, Kocks C, Rajewsky N, Zinzen RP (2017) The Drosophila embryo at single-cell transcriptome resolution. Science 3235(August):eaan3235–eaan3235. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aan3235
Kittelmann S, Buffry AD, Almudi I, Yoth M, Sabaris G, Franke FA, Couso JP, Nunes MDS, Frankel N, Gomez-Skarmeta JL, Pueyo-Marques J, Arif S, McGregor AP (2017) Gene regulatory network architecture in different developmental contexts influences the genetic basis of morphological evolution. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/219337
Lavine L, Gotoh H, Brent CS, Dworkin I, Emlen DJ (2015) Exaggerated trait growth in insects. Annu Rev Entomol 60(1):453–472. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ento-010814-021045
Massey JH, Wittkopp PJ (2016) The genetic basis of pigmentation differences within and between Drosophila species. Curr Top Dev Biol 119:27–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.ctdb.2016.03.004
Menuet A, Alunni A, Joly J-S, Jeffery WR, Rétaux S (2007) Expanded expression of Sonic Hedgehog in Astyanax cavefish: multiple consequences on forebrain development and evolution. Development 134(5):845–855. https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.02780
Nunes MDS, Arif S, Schlötterer C, McGregor AP (2013) A perspective on micro-evo-devo: progress and potential. Genetics 195(3):625–634. https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.113.156463
Pallares LF, Carbonetto P, Gopalakrishnan S, Parker CC, Ackert-Bicknell CL, Palmer AA, Tautz D (2015) Mapping of craniofacial traits in outbred mice identifies major developmental genes involved in shape determination. PLoS Genet 11(11):e1005607. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1005607
Panfilio KA (2008) Extraembryonic development in insects and the acrobatics of blastokinesis. Dev Biol 313(2):471–491. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ydbio.2007.11.004
Panganiban G, Irvine SM, Lowe C, Roehl H, Corley LS, Sherbon B, Grenier JK, Fallon JF, Kimble J, Walker M, Wray GA, Swalla BJ, Martindale MQ, Carroll SB (1997) The origin and evolution of animal appendages. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 94(10):5162–5166. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.94.10.5162
Patel NH, Martin-Blanco E, Coleman KG, Poole SJ, Ellis MC, Kornberg TB, Goodman CS (1989) Expression of engrailed proteins in arthropods, annelids, and chordates. Cell 58(5):955–968. https://doi.org/10.1016/0092-8674(89)90947-1
Posnien N, Hopfen C, Hilbrant M, Ramos-Womack M, Murat S, Schönauer A, Herbert SL, Nunes MDS, Arif S, Breuker CJ, Schlötterer C, Mitteroecker P, McGregor AP (2012) Evolution of eye morphology and rhodopsin expression in the Drosophila melanogaster species subgroup. PLoS ONE 7(5):e37346. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0037346
Protas M, Jeffery WR (2012) Evolution and development in cave animals: from fish to crustaceans. Wiley Interdiscip Rev Dev Biol 1(6):823–845. https://doi.org/10.1002/wdev.61
Salazar-Ciudad I, Jernvall J (2010) A computational model of teeth and the developmental origins of morphological variation. Nature 464(7288):583–586. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08838
Sharpe J (2017) Computer modeling in developmental biology: growing today, essential tomorrow. Development 144(23):4214–4225. https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.151274
Smith FW, Boothby TC, Giovannini I, Rebecchi L, Jockusch EL, Goldstein B (2016) The compact body plan of tardigrades evolved by the loss of a large body region. Curr Biol 26(2):224–229. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2015.11.059
Steinmetz PRH, Aman A, Kraus JEM, Technau U (2017) Gut-like ectodermal tissue in a sea anemone challenges germ layer homology. Nat Ecol Evol 1(10):1535–1542. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0285-5
Stemmer M, Schuhmacher L-N, Foulkes NS, Bertolucci C, Wittbrodt J (2015) Cavefish eye loss in response to an early block in retinal differentiation progression. Development 142(4):743–752. https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.114629
Stern DL, Frankel N (2013) The structure and evolution of cis-regulatory regions: the shavenbaby story. Philos Trans R Soc Lond Ser B Biol Sci 368(1632):20130028. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013.0028
Stern DL, Orgogozo V (2009) Is genetic evolution predictable? Science (New York, NY) 323(5915):746–751. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1158997
Tautz D, Pfeifle C (1989) A non-radioactive in situ hybridization method for the localization of specific RNAs in Drosophila embryos reveals translational control of the segmentation gene hunchback. Chromosoma 98(2):81–85. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00291041
Telford MJ, Budd GE, Philippe H (2015) Phylogenomic insights into animal evolution. Curr Biol 25(19):R876–R887. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2015.07.060
Testa ND, Dworkin I (2016) The sex-limited effects of mutations in the EGFR and TGF-β signaling pathways on shape and size sexual dimorphism and allometry in the Drosophila wing. Dev Genes Evol 226(3):159–171. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00427-016-0534-7
Thompson D, Regev A, Roy S (2015) Comparative analysis of gene regulatory networks: from network reconstruction to evolution. Annu Rev Cell Dev Biol 31:399–428. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-cellbio-100913-012908
Verd B, Clark E, Wotton KR, Janssens H, Jiménez-Guri E, Crombach A, Jaeger J (2018) A damped oscillator imposes temporal order on posterior gap gene expression in Drosophila. PLoS Biol 16(2):e2003174. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2003174
Vuolo F, Mentink RA, Hajheidari M, Bailey CD, Filatov DA, Tsiantis M (2016) Coupled enhancer and coding sequence evolution of a homeobox gene shaped leaf diversity. Genes Dev 30(21):2370–2375. https://doi.org/10.1101/gad.290684.116
Acknowledgments
NP is supported by the Emmy Noether Programme of the German Research Foundation (G rant number: PO 1648/3-1). Many thanks to Elisa Buchberger and Micael Reis for critical comments on the manuscript. I would also like to thank Felix Quade for discussions on microscopy methods. And many thanks to all the great colleagues who contributed significantly to our currently knowledge in evo-devo but whose work I could not cite in this chapter due to space limitations.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Posnien, N. (2021). Phenotyping in Evo-Devo. In: Nuño de la Rosa, L., Müller, G.B. (eds) Evolutionary Developmental Biology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32979-6_121
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32979-6_121
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-32977-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-32979-6
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences