Université de Fribourg

The Evolution of Aging

Fabian, Daniel ; Flatt, Thomas

In: Nature Education Knowledge, 2011, vol. 3, no. 3, p. 1-10

Université de Fribourg

A role for genetic accommodation in evolution?

Braendle, Christian ; Flatt, Thomas

In: BioEssays, 2006, no. 28, p. 868-873

Whether evolutionary change can occur by genetic assimilation, or more generally by genetic accommodation, remains controversial. Here we examine some of the experimental evidence for both phenomena. Several experiments in Drosophila suggest that assimilation is possible, and a new paper1 shows that a color polyphenism in the tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta, can evolve by genetic ...

Université de Fribourg

Comparing thyroid and insect hormone signaling

Flatt, Thomas ; Moroz, Leonid L. ; Tatar, Marc ; Heyland, Andreas

In: Integrative and Comparative Biology, 2006, vol. 46, no. 6, p. 777-794

Transitions between different states of development, physiology, and life history are typically mediated by hormones. In insects, metamorphosis and reproductive maturation are regulated by an interaction between the sesquiterpenoid juvenile hormone (JH) and the steroid 20-hydroxy-ecdysone (20E). In vertebrates and some marine invertebrates, the lipophilic thyroid hormones (THs) affect...

Université de Fribourg

Hormonal pleiotropy and the juvenile hormone regulation of Drosophila development and life history

Flatt, Thomas ; Tu, Meng-Ping ; Tatar, Marc

In: BioEssays, 2005, vol. 27, no. 10, p. 999-1010

Understandinghowtraits are integrated at the organismal level remains a fundamental problem at the interface of developmental and evolutionary biology. Hormones, regulatory signaling molecules that coordinate multiple developmental and physiological processes, are major determinants underlying phenotypic integration. The probably best example for this is the lipid-like juvenile hormone (JH)...

Université de Fribourg

Phenotypic variation in an oviparous montane lizard (Bassiana duperreyi): the effects of thermal and hydric incubation environments

Flatt, Thomas ; Shine, Richard ; Borges-Landaez, Pedro A. ; Downes, Sharon J.

In: Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2001, vol. 74, no. 3, p. 339-350

Recent studies have shown that incubation temperatures can profoundly affect the phenotypes of hatchling lizards, but the effects of hydric incubation environments remain controversial.We examined incubation-induced phenotypic variation in Bassiana duperreyi (Gray, 1938; Sauria: Scincidae), an oviparous montane lizard from south-eastern Australia. We incubated eggs from this species in four...