Pleiotropy and Its Evolution: Connecting Evo-Devo and Population Genetics

Pleiotropy, the involvement of a gene in development and variation of multiple traits, is a concept considerable appreciation in developmentally as well as statistically oriented fields of evolutionary biology. Here I argue that this feature makes pleiotropy a particularly suitable guiding topic for connecting the two branches of evolutionary biology, and integrate evolutionary descriptions from the molecular, over developmental, to populational mechanisms. I first describe some of the challenges in defining pleiotropy, and then focus on evolution of pleiotropic constraints, which I suggest is the centerpiece of the connection. Finally, I address some of the future challenges.