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https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5881861923?omn=85945744831
Meeting ID: 588 186 1923

Topic description / abstract:

Recent years have seen the growth of work illuminating the mechanical aspects of morphogenesis, but its relationship to the established ideas and evidence of developmental and evolutionary genetics remains unclear. This talk examines the conceptual relationship between mechanics and genetics in the context of animal morphogenesis. I propose a view in which ‘genetic programs’—understood as gene regulatory networks—and processes of physical self-organization are not conflicting models of development, but instead play necessary and complementary causal roles at cellular and supra-cellular length scales, respectively. On this basis, I describe differences in how mechanical versus genetic factors influence the evolvability of morphological traits.