ResearchBlogging.orgThis post serves as a lighthearted response to Jonathan’s earlier announcement and as an advertisement – perhaps endorsement – for some of the upcoming anole talks at Evolution 2012.

In his post Jonathan highlights recent comments by David Hembry that describe the blossoming of anoles into “field model organisms,” the ecological parallel of chicks, mice, and Drosophila which have long histories in laboratory studies. While the importance of anoles for Evolutionary Ecology is almost without question, I think that this stops short of describing the present and undeniable future of anole research. From my perspective, the roots of Anolis research are strong and wide, but its flower(s) has not yet fully blossomed.

In the most recent issue of Evolution and Development I argue that Anolis is rapidly maturing into a model system for integrative biology, a group of species that transcends the somewhat restrictive, traditional systems of genetics, ecology, physiology, development, etc. Integrative systems – such as Anolis, stickleback, and others – allow approaches once restricted to these different disciplines to be pulled together into a more synthetic understanding of biological diversity and evolution. Following the publication of the A. carolinensis genome (and years of preceding research), Anolis biologists can now readily address questions that cross biological and temporal scales – from DNA, to development, to phenotypic variation with species, to the diversity and convergence of distantly related species. At SICB 2012 the research presented ranged from behavioral ecology to comparative genomics to studies of development and evolution. The upcoming talks at Evolution 2012 cover much of this same diversity.

In addition to the emerging studies of anole evolution and ecology, one of the dominant themes in anole research that I predict at Evolution 2012 will be the integration of methods and perspectives from many, once disparate, biological disciplines. For example, at the micro-scale, Mark Tollis will be presenting research on the population genomics of A. carolinensis and Chris Schneider will be presenting a genomic analysis of local adaptation in A. marmoratus. At a more macro-scale, I will be presenting data on variation in patterns of sexual dimorphism, their developmental bases, and tying the exaggeration of male morphology to the differential expression of the estrogen pathway. Without abstracts it is difficult to know what other exciting advancements will arise at this meeting but there are sure to be more.

With the swelling community of biologists interested in Anolis our technical and conceptual progress is accelerating rapidly. I feel that what we are witnessing right now is only tip of the iceberg of where Anolis research will be in five years.

Thomas J. Sanger (2012). The emergence of squamates as model systems for integrative biology Evolution & Development, 14 (3), 231-233

Thomas Sanger
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