evo-devo

Sommer RJ 2009 The future of evo-devo: model systems and evolutionary theory. Nat Rev Genet 10:416-422.

• evo-devo has to concentrate on a few well-selected model organisms to allow the development of a sophisticated analytical tool kit for functional investigations
• a prerequisite for the long-term success of evo-devo

• comparative studies should concentrate on mechanisms rather than, for example, gene conservation and gene expression

• Neo-Darwinism assumes that macroevolutionary change results from repeated microevolutionary alterations, but there is no substantial proof for this assumption
• current population genetics lacks an in-depth consideration of developmental control genes in the same way as evo-devo lacks a serious consideration of microevolutionary processes
• the naive assumption that all developmental patterns observed in nature are adaptive, is an important threat to evo-devo