Variation: Development and Selection

My research in the area of evolutionary developmental biology is focused on the genetic and developmental dissection of phenotypic variation. Heritable phenotypic variation is the raw material of evolution by natural selection, and a universal property of biological systems - including traits of medical and economic importance. Understanding the mechanisms that generate phenotypic variation is, thus, a key challenge in contemporary biological research. My work so far has concentrated on a diverse and ecologically-relevant phenotype that represents a laboratory-tractable system for the dissection of variation in complex traits: wing color patterns on butterfly wings.