Re: genetic tool kits


Dimitri Ognibene wrote:
> thanks,
> I've found the article very interesting
> Dimitri


Hi Dimitri. I just got the following book from the library, "The New
Science of Evo-Devo", by Sean Carroll, 2005. Written by the same author
as the online article previously cited, with much broader coverage. Has
a chapter going back to the cambrian explosion. One comment ....

"... researchers now know that life's building materials are few, and
they were 'invented' near the dawn of animals. More specifically, a
surprisingly small number of genes -- 'tool kit genes' -- are the
primary componnets for building all animals, and these genes emerged at
the time of the Cambrian Explosion ..."

This has some interesting repercussions for the thesis of people like
S.Gould, who think if you replayed evolution, you'd get a completely
different result ... but Carroll argues otherwise ...

".... some prominent scientists have argued that if we rewind the tape
of life and start over again, the result would be a totally different
world from what exists today. They are wrong. Tool kit genes conserve
the essence of animals, and they react to ecological cues in very
consistent ways ...."

This is some of the most incredible stuff I've seen in years. It's
certainly not the boring same-o, same-o.

.