Abstract

Abundant evidence indicates that developmental evolution, the foundation of morphological evolution, is based on changes in gene function. Over the past decade a consensus has developed that transcriptional regulation, acting through enhancer sequences, is the primary level of evolutionarily significant change. Here we propose that other regulatory levels are probably as important as enhancers in developmental evolution. We also explain why these alternative regulatory levels might have been neglected, and briefly discuss ways to test our hypothesis.

Author affiliations

1. Claudio R. Alonso is at the Laboratory for Development and Evolution, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK.
2. Adam S. Wilkins is at the BioEssays Editorial Office, 10–11 Tredgold Lane, Napier Street, Cambridge CB1 1HN, UK.

Correspondence to: Claudio R. Alonso¹ Email: cra21@hermes.cam.ac.uk

Published online 10 August 2005

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