Heterochrony in Hydractiniid Hydroids

一个多世纪以来，比较生物学家证明，进化变化往往是通过改变发育事件的时间发生的，即异时性，但直到过去十年，才有分子工具可用于确定发育机制。随着这些工具被应用于模型系统，对主要进化模式的机制基础的综合理解是一个现实的期望。这项工作试图建立这样一个综合体。作为第一步，它将确定几个可供选择的细胞过程中的哪些在已知的水生动物(水母纲)的系统发育中经历了进化变化，并将确定这些特征中的哪些特征表现出能够遗传的变异。

For over a century, comparative biologists have documented that evolutionary change often occurs through alterations in the timing of developmental events, i.e., heterochrony, but only in the past decade, have molecular tools become available to determine the mechanisms of development. As these tools are applied to model systems, a synthetic understanding of the mechanistic underpinnings of a major mode of evolutionary change is a realistic expectation. This work seeks to establish such a synthesis. As a first step, it will establish which of several alternative cellular processes have undergone evolutionary change in a known phylogeny of hydroids (Phylum Hydrozoa) and will establish which of those traits display variation capable of being inherited.