Integrating large scale genetic, developmental, and anatomical evolution

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The central aim of this research is to discover how genes, development, and anatomy are integrated across large scale evolutionary events. Two evolutionary events will be the focus of this research: the fish fin to amphibian limb and dinosaur arm to bird wing evolutionary transitions. These two transitions are chosen because of their rich fossil record and the wealth of modern research on the developmental mechanics of fins the limbs. A series of complementary projects are designed to achieve this goal through a student project-driven interdisciplinary research program. One set of projects will investigate details of each transition as preserved in the fossil and modern anatomical record. A complete description of qualitative characters and three dimensional surface imaging will be used to assess the tempo and mode of skeletal evolution in the fins and limbs across these transitions. This work will determine the pace and timing of evolutionary change at these transitions. A second project will undertake a massive gene sequencing project to identify what genes involved in fin and limb development were evolving at each transition using cutting-edge large scale gene sequencing and bioinformatics technologies. A third project will integrate the evolutionary and genetic data to assess how the evolving genes may be associated with details of skeletal evolution across these transitions. This will be done by examining the expression patterns of genes identified as important for each transition, patterns of cell migration and proliferation, and resulting tissue-level development in a range of living species bracketing each transition. This research will derive a comprehensive analysis of the interface between genetic and anatomical evolution. These results will have application to our understanding of how biological systems evolve and how developmental biology influences large scale evolutionary change.