Fred one day receives a letter in the mail from a man named Greg, saying he is going to stay with him for a few days. Fred is perplexed because he knows nobody by the name Greg and decides to change the locks to his house. Despite his precautions, one afternoon Fred returns home to find a strange man sitting in his living room. He is dressed in leather pants with a half buttoned shirt and piercings in his nose, tongue, and lip. He is wearing an enormous bolo hat that casts a shadow over his face. Fred is frightened by the man’s appearance for Fred is a traditional man, wearing pressed slacks, a buttoned down shirt, and sports jacket as his typical attire. Fred moves cautiously into the living area sitting down on the sofa across from stranger. The stranger says something in another language, and Fred becomes confused. He tells the stranger he cannot understand him and a silence follows. Then in broken English the stranger asks Fred the following: “Do you love me? Fred shakes his head slowly not sure how to proceed. The fellow then extends his hand and gives Fred a slip of paper. Fred reluctantly grasps it and looks it over. He recognizes it immediately as his own birth certificate. However, something is wrong, instead of having “Fred” in the name section, the document has Greg typed in. Fred looks at the stranger perplexed and says “what is this”? The man looks up revealing his face and says “it is my birth certificate. Greg is Fred’s long lost identical twin.

    The experience of Greg is one that is a hallmark of evo-devo: the development of traits due to an environment. Greg and Fred are identical twins that somehow or another were separated at birth. They speak different languages and have two distinct styles of dress. They grew up in different locations with different influences from their environment, and though they are identical in origin they are no longer identical in likeness. Their development differed because the pressures of their environment differed. Yet, Greg did not stop being an identical twin of Fred or the vice versa. Instead merely their behaviors adapted to their habitat. They remained identical brothers throughout the process.      

    Evo-devo functions in a similar way. Just like with Greg and Fred the theory states that organisms do not always evolve into different species by undergoing changes to their genome. Rather the emphasis on a select group of genes changes allowing the organism to overcome its environmental barrier. Environments and niches (organism’s unique role in the environment) present distinct pressures to all forms of life; however, the solution to overcoming many of these barricades is not usually extensively changing oneself to fit into a habitat perfectly. Rather, just like with the Galapagos Finches, the smallest adaptation to an environment’s stimulus is often the best adaptation. The Galapagos Finches are birds that all spawn from the same original ancestor. However, their resemblances vary. Some finches have long narrow beaks; some have medium short beaks, while others have large wide beaks. The reason for their diversity of beaks is due to their food source. The narrow long beak finches eat insects; the medium short beaks eat fruit, while the large wide beak finches eat nuts and seeds. The finches diverged because their environmental pressures are different from another. As with Fred and Greg, the finches, whose genomes for all intensive purposes are identical to another, did not stop being finches. Merely adaptation to an habitat occurred.

Fred Bakes a Cake

  Fred’s wife is having a birthday and Fred wants to bake her a cake. The only problem is Fred has never baked a cake in his life. He looks at a cookbook and muddles over various recipes for angle-food cake, devil-food cake, and the normal-guy-food cake. Eventually, Fred finds a recipe he likes: vanilla cake. Fred follows the instructions and bakes the first cake, tastes it, and nearly dies. After recuperating Fred decides the oven must have burnt the cake or something and makes another cake following the same recipe. He tastes this second cake and runs to the bathroom vomiting. After forty-five minutes Fred comes out of the bathroom and sees that his friend Ted in the kitchen helping himself to the fridge. Ted notices Fred and asks why he looks so green. Fred tells him that he is having trouble making a cake. Ted asks Fred to describe to him the recipe he is using. After hearing the list of ingredients Ted says I know why your cake sucks; you inverted the ingredient measurements for vanilla extract and sugar. It should be two cups of sugar and one tablespoon of vanilla extract not the other way around. They bake the cake again and it comes out just right.

       Fred’s experience with baking a cake is a cornerstone of evo-devo theory. Fred’s attempts at making cakes were pitiful. His creations were toxic and would have surely not made his wife happy on her special day. His problem however, was not with the fundamental practice of baking a cake. His problem was with emphasis. Though sugar was present in his cake, the bitterness of vanilla extract overpowered it. Fred had all the ingredients right, but not the right ratio. His emphasis was off and his cake was lethal.

       In nature the same trend is seen as with Fred’s cake. When an organism is confronted with a change to its habitat it either adapts or it dies. However, to revamp an aspect of an organism’s genetic makeup takes time and is difficult to achieve in the short run. It is often easier for that organism to shift emphasis on genes already present within its genome to adapt to its environment. In Fred’s cake all of the necessary ingredients for a good cake were present, but not in the right ratio or emphasis. When Fred fixed the ratio of ingredients he fixed the cake. This is analogous as to how an organism adjusts the expression and emphasis of its genes in order to achieve a desired adaptive result.

Fred Learns the Truth

  After his cake baking experience Fred plops down in a cozy chair with the latest edition of Science for the Normal Guy Magazine.  The title reads Evo Devo.  The cover page shows his face.  Fred is perplexed ... but strangely content.

Jen Burger ... jburgs88 at gmail.com

Alec Perez ... cuba15arp at aol.com

last updated: 7/20/08