Centipedes And Mouse-Ear Cress: Review of Minelli, A. 2018. Plant Evolutionary Developmental Biology: The Evolvability of the Phenotype. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, U.K., 468 pp. ISBN: 978-1-107-03492-1; $84.99.

摘要

Wide ranging research fields such as evolutionary, developmental, and evo-devo biology can only benefit from dialogue across disciplinary lines. Nonetheless, historically there has been a lack of communication between animal and plant scientists studying evo-devo. Given that plants and animals have such different life cycles and developmental mechanisms, animal and plant scientists often work in isolation from one another, potentially limiting understanding of evo-devo processes. Alessandro Minelli's recent book "Plant Evolutionary Developmental Biology: The Evolvability of the Phenotype" (Minelli 2018) offers an unconventional perspective on the study of plant evolution that should help bridge the gap between animal and plant biologists. His perspective proves of interest to plant and animal biologists alike. Alessandro Minelli is renowned for his contributions to invertebrate evo-devo, including compelling empirical examples of developmental constraint and rethinking serial homology of the invertebrate body. Drawing on his perspective, Minelli brings topics that are more commonly discussed in an animal context, such as thinking about phenotypes as developmental sequences rather than studying just a single developmental stage, in a plant context. Interestingly, this book also reveals blind spots in the animal evo-devo perspective, highlighting the need to increase dialogue among scientists studying similar phenomena such as trait modularity or phenotypic plasticity but with different organisms. Here, we summarize some of the aspects we found most valuable for broadening understanding of evo-devo processes.