Editor's Summary
27 September 2007
Evolutionary options
It is clear that ecology has been a major factor in shaping the diversity of life. But are there factors in development that also guide evolution? 'Evo-devo' studies aim to answer that question by looking at how the developmental processes of animals and plants vary according to their ancestral relationships. An effective test of the link between development and evolution is the arrangement of molars in mice. The first molar is larger than the one behind, which in turn is larger than the third, hindmost molar. Kavanagh et al. have investigated this experimentally, and find that molar development follows an inhibitory cascade model. The results show that whereas diet is the driving force in tooth evolution, development creates the options available for natural selection. As for our troublesome wisdom teeth, the blame may lie with our weak inhibitory cascade.
News and Views: Evolutionary biology: Development with a bite
Predictions drawn from experiments on the growth of molar teeth in mice, and applied to a wide range of related species, provide a remarkable connection between developmental and evolutionary biology.
P. David Polly
doi:10.1038/449413a
Article: Predicting evolutionary patterns of mammalian teeth from development
Kathryn D. Kavanagh, Alistair R. Evans & Jukka Jernvall
doi:10.1038/nature06153
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (596K) | Supplementary information