molecules, morphology, populations, speciation

[Peter Stevens]

At 3:20 PM -0500 7/26/05, Richard.Zander at MOBOT.ORG wrote:
>In the absence of really clear mechanistic descriptions of how
>molecular evolution dovetails with interaction of populations with the
>environment and attendant speciation[....]


There is a body of work both on plants and animals that is delivering
what you seem to wnat. As to plants, I think the elegant studies of
Rieseberg et al. on Helianthus would fit the bill. There is also a
paper in which Enrico Coen is involved in a recent PNAS - Langlade et
al. - Evolution through genetically-controlled allometry space. PNAS
102: 10221-10226. 2005 - that is relevant, as is work on Mimulus,
etc.  As to animals, even that old war-horse of speciation/change,
Geospiza, is being tricked out anew; the Grants have been
investigating the molecular/developmental control of beak morphology.
There ia another paper in PNAS (102: 6587-6594: 2005) by Anne Yoder
et al. on Malagasy lemurs which is a nice example of one way to go
(the focus is on the delimitation of species), and I would have
thought Schluter's work on sticklebacks would be grist to the mill,
too.  These are just some papers, etc., admittedly with rather
different emphases, that spring immediately to mind; there is a lot
going on.

Peter S.