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Reflections on Model Organisms in Evolutionary Developmental Biology

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Evo-Devo: Non-model Species in Cell and Developmental Biology

Part of the book series: Results and Problems in Cell Differentiation ((RESULTS,volume 68))

Abstract

This chapter reflects on and makes explicit the distinctiveness of reasoning practices associated with model organisms in the context of evolutionary developmental research. Model organisms in evo-devo instantiate a unique synthesis of model systems strategies from developmental biology and comparative strategies from evolutionary biology that negotiate a tension between developmental conservation and evolutionary change to address scientific questions about the evolution of development and the developmental basis of evolutionary change. We review different categories of model systems that have been advanced to understand practices found in the life sciences in order to comprehend how evo-devo model organisms instantiate this synthesis in the context of three examples: the starlet sea anemone and the evolution of bilateral symmetry, leeches and the origins of segmentation in bilaterians, and the corn snake to understand major evolutionary change in axial and appendicular morphology.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Max Dresow, Nathan Lackey, Katherine Liu, and Aaron Vesey for feedback on an earlier version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy and Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Alan C. Love & Yoshinari Yoshida

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  1. Alan C. Love
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  2. Yoshinari Yoshida
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Correspondence to Alan C. Love .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Zoology and Biomedical Research, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland

    Waclaw Tworzydlo

  2. Institute of Zoology and Biomedical Research, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland

    Szczepan M. Bilinski

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Love, A.C., Yoshida, Y. (2019). Reflections on Model Organisms in Evolutionary Developmental Biology. In: Tworzydlo, W., Bilinski, S. (eds) Evo-Devo: Non-model Species in Cell and Developmental Biology. Results and Problems in Cell Differentiation, vol 68. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23459-1_1

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