兔子的驯服
The genetic changes leading to domestication of the many plant and animal species we use for food and keep as pets has become a popular research topic. A consistent problem in such studies is identifying the original wild population from which domesticated species evolved, or even determining if these populations still exist.
Studies of dog domestication, for example, compare domestic breeds to wild wolves. Given the considerable reduction in wolf populations over the last thousand years however, it seems unlikely these populations are the same as those from which dogs evolved from.
Leif Andersson乌普萨拉大学（Uppsala University）的证据表明，兔子为避免这个问题提供了独特的机会。对于大多数驯服的动物，驯化开始于史前。然而，对于兔子来说，我们知道它们的驯化开始时有一定的确切性：在法国南部约600AD（据称是因为天主教教会认为兔子是鱼而不是肉，这意味着它们可以在四旬斋期间被食用）。这些地区仍然存在许多野兔种群，这意味着我们可以对将驯养的兔子与其实际野生祖先进行比较感到有信心。
这就是安德森（Andersson）和他的团队所做的，在伊比利亚和法国采样了相当多的野兔种群，并将其等位基因频率与六个家用兔子品种进行了比较。他们发现在神经元区域和大脑发育中涉及的基因强烈富集。发现与野兔和家用兔子的飞行反应发生变化一致。
This is perhaps not surprising; it is often noted that while the wild relatives of most domestic species are not prone to panic, but wild rabbits provide a clear exception to this rule. It is thus understandable that early rabbit domesticators selectively bred relatively calm individuals, reflected in these genetic changes. Charles Darwin himself (who discussed domestication extensively in his物种的起源) noted that “hardly any animal is more difficult to tame than the young of the wild rabbit; scarcely any animal is tamer than the young of the tame rabbit”.
One thing Andersson’s team did不是发现是一个基因在驯化过程中被灭活的一个例子。安德森（Andersson）亲自怀疑所谓的“驯化基因”的存在，这表明驯化并不依赖于几个基因的重大变化，而是一个多基因性状，依赖于许多等位基因的频率的变化。
池塘中印章的好奇事件
一个明显的历史新颖性支持现代发展理论的奇怪案例是谈论的话题Yoland Savria赫尔辛基大学。1929年，在斯德哥尔摩，一条环盖和灰密封被囚禁，并产生了混合后代。尽管这个后代在出生时死了，但两种物种可以繁殖是显着的。正如萨维里亚（Savriama）指出的那样，这两个密封物种的多样性是人类和尼安德特人的四倍。
The skull of this hybrid was preserved and, almost 100 years later, Savriama and colleagues used geometric morphometrics to compare its skull with those of pure-bred ringed and grey seals.
The overall phenotype of the hybrid skull was an almost perfect intermediate of its two parent species. Closer analysis however, suggested that rather than being a blend of its two parent species, different regions of the hybrid skull were more closely aligned to one species than the other. While of course noting the caveat of this analysis being based on a single sample, Savriama believes these findings support the idea of modularity in the development of seal skulls.
Modules in this concept are broadly defined as independent units which while strongly coherent within themselves, are independent from the other modules making up the larger morphological whole. So in this case, the hybrid offspring inherited different modules from each of its parental species; the individual skull modules show clear evidence of the species they were inherited from, with only the overall skull appearing as an intermediate of the two species.
胎盘，灵长类动物和有袋动物
模块化是整个会议中的一个流行话题，包括关于发育进化在生殖医学中的作用的研讨会。不过，在这里，问题是如何将模块化等发展理论应用于更多的无定形形态。
米克·埃利奥特（Mick Elliot）在剑桥大学的，他在谈论将进化思想应用于人体胎盘的讨论中指出了这个问题。当您看着像蠕虫一样经常用作发育生物学中的模型物种的清晰细分动物时，模块化是一个相对容易的概念。但是，如何在胎盘等器官中定义模块？当哺乳动物之间的胎盘形态差异很大，以至于弄清物种之间的等效部分变得非常困难时，也很难确定同源性（不同物种中的结构的共同血统）。
尽管遇到了这些困难，但艾略特强调了努力扩大我们对妊娠相关的医疗状况的知识的重要性。正如他指出的那样，研究前启示识的最广泛使用的模型是小鼠 - 尽管这种疾病实际上并未发生在小鼠中！同时，艾略特和德里克·怀尔德曼（Derek Wildman）in another talk discussed, we still know close to nothing about how common (or non-existent) preeclampsia is in our primate relatives.
The need to expand our range of model species was one of the themes of the symposia.玛丽莲·伦弗里（Marilyn Renfree）of the University of Melbourne told of her group’s success using marsupials as model species. By virtue of most of their development taking place after birth, marsupials present a unique opportunity for developmental research. The same phases of development that take placein uteroinEutherian哺乳动物（从而阻止对年轻人的操纵而无需杀死年轻人），在母亲的小袋中发生了有袋动物，可以操纵年轻人而不会受到伤害。
Renfree描述了她将塔玛袋鼠用作研究人类中性障碍的发展，例如微生物的发展。出生时，袋鼠性腺尚未发展为雄性或女性生殖器。因此，通过用不同水平的激素（例如雄激素）（口服输送，例如用瓶子喂养婴儿）来治疗它们，Renfree的小组开始了解激素水平变化对生殖器发育的影响。
蚂蚁未来的遗迹
The conference was concluded with a keynote talk byEhab abouheif麦吉尔大学（McGill University）题为“亲爱的蚂蚁，你为evo-devo做了什么？”那么，蚂蚁做了什么？好吧，Abouheif指出，遗传相同的皇后和工人之间存在实质性的形态学差异（完全由食物作为幼虫所造成的差异）以及许多物种中工人的子种子之间对进化发展生物学家的本质上很有趣。
However the focus of Abouheif’s talk was on one particular aspect of ant morphology: wings. Queens (before they mate) and males (who die immediately after mating) have wings, but ant workers do not. Workers do still maintain vestigial wing discs however, a universal feature of all ant species.
20年来，Abouheif（与所有其他研究人员一样）认为这些翼盘没有任何功能，只是我们在自然界中看到的许多残留身体部位之一，自然选择的证据，但仅此而已。然而，最近，他的实验室发现事实并非如此。机翼光盘可能会对蚂蚁发育产生重大影响，并可能对蚂蚁进化产生重大影响。
在蚂蚁属上工作Pheidolethat produces soldier and worker sub-castes, Abouheif found that knocking out the gene linked to wing discs interferes with the development of the much larger head size of the soldiers. In a sense, development of larvae into soldiers is ‘activated’ by the wing discs, via hormone levels.
Even more excitingly, the wing discs are linked to the development of novel castes. SomePheidolespecies produce ‘super-soldiers’ with extremely large heads; these they use to block nest entrances, helping protect their colony when under attack by marauding army ants. Once again, the development of these extra-large heads is linked to the vestigial wing discs.
Abouheif and his lab members have even spotted what appear to be random ‘super-soldier’ individuals in species that do not actually produce super-soldiers (and would have no apparent need to, living in northern America where predatory army ants are not found). It appears these are produced by random mutations in the wing disc genes; an example of the randomly generated variation that provides the raw material for natural selection.
似乎只不过是工人蚂蚁在数百万年前丢失的特征的遗迹，实际上，事实证明，这是导致新型进化创新的新变化的根源。
注释