Evolutionary developmental biology is an interdisciplinary research programme that intersects and feeds into many evolutionary disciplines such as the study of development (both at a molecular and organismal level), comparative analysis of development through phylogeny, phylogenomics, physics and self-assembly, computer modelling, and the fossil record. Reciprocal illumination, i.e. the ability of testing and updating models across disciplines, and consilience, the principle that independent lines of evidence should converge towards mutually supported conclusions, are of fundamental importance in such a research programme.
This is particularly true for land plants, where their biology (including extensive hybridization and genomic duplication; their continuous, fuzzy developmental system) and the fragmentary nature of their fossil record complicates the generation and testing of hypotheses of homology, and of patterns of phylogenetic relationship among fossil and extant species, that integrate developmental constraints. In this Research topic, we welcome contributions that make use of reciprocal illumination or consilience approaches to address questions in plant Evo-Devo.
These could be but are not limited to:
- studies that use phylogenetic hypotheses derived from molecular data to inform hypotheses of character homology formulated based on comparative or developmental grounds.
- studies that use a phylogenetic framework to study the evolution of molecular mechanisms of development;
- studies looking at fossil morphologies and how they can change our ideas of developmental constraints on trait dynamics across phylogenies;
- studies looking at how developmental genetics that inform hypotheses of phylogenetic relationships among fossils and extant species.
We hope for submissions that address as many as possible of the many aspects of plant life history, including reproductive and vegetative structures, sporophytes and gametophytes, as well as pollen and spores.
The Topic Editors would like to thank Dr. Nuria Melisa Morales Garcia for the creation of the Topic logo.
Evolutionary developmental biology is an interdisciplinary research programme that intersects and feeds into many evolutionary disciplines such as the study of development (both at a molecular and organismal level), comparative analysis of development through phylogeny, phylogenomics, physics and self-assembly, computer modelling, and the fossil record. Reciprocal illumination, i.e. the ability of testing and updating models across disciplines, and consilience, the principle that independent lines of evidence should converge towards mutually supported conclusions, are of fundamental importance in such a research programme.
This is particularly true for land plants, where their biology (including extensive hybridization and genomic duplication; their continuous, fuzzy developmental system) and the fragmentary nature of their fossil record complicates the generation and testing of hypotheses of homology, and of patterns of phylogenetic relationship among fossil and extant species, that integrate developmental constraints. In this Research topic, we welcome contributions that make use of reciprocal illumination or consilience approaches to address questions in plant Evo-Devo.
These could be but are not limited to:
- studies that use phylogenetic hypotheses derived from molecular data to inform hypotheses of character homology formulated based on comparative or developmental grounds.
- studies that use a phylogenetic framework to study the evolution of molecular mechanisms of development;
- studies looking at fossil morphologies and how they can change our ideas of developmental constraints on trait dynamics across phylogenies;
- studies looking at how developmental genetics that inform hypotheses of phylogenetic relationships among fossils and extant species.
We hope for submissions that address as many as possible of the many aspects of plant life history, including reproductive and vegetative structures, sporophytes and gametophytes, as well as pollen and spores.
The Topic Editors would like to thank Dr. Nuria Melisa Morales Garcia for the creation of the Topic logo.
