The Evolution of Developmental Pathways

PART I: Context and Foundations.- Evolution and Embryology: A Brief History of a Complex Pas de Deux.- Information Sources for Reconstructing Developmental Evolution I: Fossils.- Information Sources for Reconstructing Developmental Evolution II: Comparative Molecular Studies.- Genetic Pathways and Networks in Development.- Conserved Genes and Functions in Animal Development.- PART II: Case Studies in Pathway Evolution.- Evolving Developmental Pathways I: Sex Determination.- Evolving Developmental Pathways II: Segmental Patterning in Insects.- Evolving Developmental Pathways III: Two Organ 'Fields,' The Nematode Vulva and the Tetrapod Limb.- PART III: Conundrums.- Genetic Source Materials for Developmental Evolution.- Costs and Constraints: Factors that Retard and Channel Developmental Evolution.- On Growth and Form: The Developmental and Evolutionary Genetics of Morphogenesis.- Speciation and Developmental Evolution.- Metazoan Origins and the Beginnings of Complex Animal Evolution.- The Coming Evolution of Evolutionary Developmental Biology.- Appendix 1: Genetic Nomenclature.- Appendix 2: Cladistics.- Appendix 3: Molecular Clocks.- Glossary.- References.

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.