Re: New 2002 paper.

["Williams, Tim" <TiJaWi@agron.iastate.edu>]

Catching up on some old emails...

Stephan Pickering wrote:

> Walter J. Gehring, 2002. The genetic control of eye development and its 
> implications for the evolution of various eye-types, International 
> Journal of Developmental Biology 46(1):65-73 

Dr Gehring receives a mention in a recent _Science_...

Evo-Devo Devotees Eye Ocular Origins and More.  296 (5570): 1010-1011

Gehring proposes not only that eyes have a monophyletic origin in
eukaryotes, but may originally have started out as a separate organism - as
hypothesized for chloroplasts and mitochondria.  According to Gehring, a
light-sensitive chloroplast-like microbe formed a symbiotic association with
a second microbe to form an organism that could *focus* light.  This new
microbe then formed a further symbiotic association with another eukaryote -
and went on to become the primordial eye of this eukaryote host.  Heterodox,
but interesting.




Tim


------------------------------------------------------------ 


Timothy J. Williams, Ph.D. 

USDA-ARS Researcher 
Agronomy Hall 
Iowa State University 
Ames IA 50014 

Phone: 515 294 9233 
Fax:   515 294 9359