The theory of natural selection explains how certain forms are either maintained or eliminated, depending on their adaptations to environments and natural conditions. But how are these different forms initially produced? What is the nature of natural variation? It is during their development that animals may deviate from their expected trajectories and thus produce new forms which may eventually become established due to their adaptive potential. It is therefore in the study of the mechanisms of embryonic development and their modifications that the answers to the question of variation in animals lie. Over the past thirty years, since the advent of genome sequencing, the link between these mechanisms and our DNA has become clear, thus opening up a new field of study that seeks to identify, within our genetic material, the basis for these evolutionary changes. This year’s conference takes stock of these advances by presenting a number of notable examples.
The conference will be held in English.