Development in context: the timely emergence of eco-devo

Abstract

Ecological development or 'eco-devo' examines the mechanisms of developmental regulation in real-world environments, providing an integrated approach for investigating both plastic and canalized aspects of phenotypic expression. This synthetic discipline brings a current understanding of environmentally mediated regulatory systems to studies of genetic variation, ecological function and evolutionary change. Eco-devo is emerging at a critical point in time, as researchers try to understand and predict the future of organisms in a changing world. Precise knowledge of the external and internal environmental cues, signaling pathways and genetic elements implicated in developmental outcomes will provide key insights to the immediate tolerance and potential evolutionary resilience of organisms to the altered physical and biotic conditions created by human activities.