Mechanisms of Phenotypic Evolution from Molecules to Organisms: Integrating Evolutionary Biochemistry and Evolutionary Developmental Biology

There are deep similarities between evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo) and evolutionary biochemistry. The two fields share a common goal: to understand how the mechanisms that translate genetic information into developmental outcomes or macromolecular structure/function drive phenotypic evolution. They employ similar conceptual approaches and strategies. And they have reached strikingly parallel conclusions about the causes and dynamics of evolutionary change, including the importance of large-effect mutations, historical contingency, entrenchment, system drift, convergence on nonoptimal properties, and directionality in phenotypic evolution. These common findings arise because genotype–phenotype relationships across levels of biological organization share key features: variable degeneracy, nonlinear transformations, pleiotropy, epistasis, and tinkering with ancestral forms. In practice, integrating evo-devo and evolutionary biochemistry can clarify how genetic change alters biochemical functions that in turn cause development to evolve, promising a more complete mechanistic understanding of how evolution across the chain of biological causality has produced the astonishing diversity of biological forms.