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Opening Darwin's black box: teaching evolution through developmental genetics

Nature Reviews Genetics volume 4, pages 735–741 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

When biologists are asked to discuss the evidence for evolution at public forums, they usually use well-established microevolutionary examples. Although these examples show the efficacy of evolution within species, they often leave audiences susceptable to the arguments of creationists who deny that evolution can create new structures and species. Recent studies from evolutionary developmental biology are beginning to provide case studies that specifically address these concerns. This perspective presents some of this new evidence and provides a framework in which to explain homology and phylogeny to such audiences.

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Figure 1: York Minster and two rival cladograms of western religion.
Figure 2: Regulation of chicken limb apoptosis by BMPs.
Figure 3: Inhibition of cell death by inhibiting BMP.
Figure 4: A newly emerging evolutionary synthesis.

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Acknowledgements

This Perspective is based on a talk originally presented as a lecture to the Society for Developmental Biology (SDB) at its annual meeting in 2002. I wish to thank the Education Committee of the SDB for the opportunity to write it and to Kenneth Miller and Sean Carroll for their helpful comments. Funding was from the National Science Foundation and from Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, 19081, Pennsylvania, USA

    Scott F. Gilbert

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  1. Scott F. Gilbert
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DATABASES

FlyBase

Distal-less

Ubx

LocusLink

Pax6

Swiss-Prot

BMP2

BMP4

Gremlin

Sonic hedgehog

FURTHER INFORMATION

Evolution, development, and creationism — a supplement

Glossary

BAYESIAN

A branch of statistics that focuses on the posterior probability of hypotheses. The posterior probability is proportional to the product of the prior probability and the likelihood.

DIPTERANS

Insects with two wings, such as flies and mosquitos.

ECLOSION

The emergence of the adult insect from its pupal case.

HALTERE

Balancers. Club-like tissue arising from the imaginal disc in the third segment of dipterans.

HOMOPLASY

Similarity whereby structures have similar form or function but not the same ancestral origin. Homoplasies often result from convergent evolution whereby different organisms in the same environment produce similar adaptions.

HYPOPHYSEAL

Pituitary.

IMAGINAL DISCS

Thickenings of the epidermis in larval insects. These structures produce the adult wings, legs, eyes, antennae, mouth and genitalia during metamorphosis.

INSTAR

The period between larval insect molts.

LIKELIHOOD ESTIMATION TEST

A statistical method that calculates the probability of the observed data under varying hypotheses to estimate model parameters that best explain the observed data and determine the relative strengths of alternative hypotheses.

MODERN SYNTHESIS

Neo-Darwinism. The theory that natural selection, acting on randomly generated variation, is the major cause of evolution.

NEURAL CREST CELLS

A migratory cell population that arises at the lateral edges of the neural plate, and which differentiates into numerous cell types including skull and facial bone, pigment cells, adrenal medullary cell, and the neurons and glia of the sensory and autonomic nervous systems.

NOTOCHORD

A rod of mesodermal cells in the dorsal midline beneath the neural tube. It is the major characteristic of chordates.

POLYPHENISM

Phenotypic variation not attributable to genetic differences: the product of environmental stimuli on particular genotypes. One example is seasonal polyphenism, whereby individuals with the same genotype manifest different phenotypes owing to temperature.

REACTION NORMS

A situation in a population in which the genotype provides a graded response to environmental conditions.

RENAL GLOMERULI

A cluster of capillaries in the kidney cortex.

SOMITES

Blocks of mesoderm along the vertebrate body axis that further differentiate into dermal skin, bone and muscle.

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Gilbert, S. Opening Darwin's black box: teaching evolution through developmental genetics. Nat Rev Genet 4, 735–741 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg1159

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