The Evolution of Developmental Pathways

In the author's words, this work examines "the nature of genetic changes that underlie evolutionary alterations in developmental processes and how those changes first translate into developmental ones, then spread in populations to create genuine evolutionary change." Early chapters deal with the historical roots of the field, data sets and analysis used in recent research, and key concepts. Later chapters present case studies in developmental evolution and consider questions and problems in the field, such as genetic variation, speciation, the evolution of morphogenesis and growth properties, and animal origins. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Adam Wilkins is Editor of the journal BioEssays. He earned a B.A. from Reed College, and a Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of Washington, and completed post-doctoral fellowships at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Wisconsin. A full-time academic until 1983, he has since held visiting professorships or lectureships at the University of Washington, the University of Wisconsin, and the National University of Singapore. Dr. Wilkins is the author of two editions of Genetic Analysis of Animal Development (John Wiley & Sons, 1986 & 1993), and co-editor of Molecular Evolution (Jones and Bartlett, 1984, with E. A. Terzaghi and D. Penny) and Molecular Model Systems in the Lepidoptera (Cambridge University Press, 1995, with M. Goldsmith). His particular research interest, at present, is the evolution of sex determination pathways.