Adaptive Mechanisms that Accelerate Embryonic Development in Drosophila

Why does an organism have particular structures? One answer is historical: Processes within its ancestors generated structures that helped their users to survive the gauntlet of natural selection. In general it is difficult to reconstruct the historical sequence of interactions between self-organization and selection convincingly. An alternative approach to understanding structures considers them as designs that meet criteria of performance.25 Here we take an approach through design to understanding the molecular organization of development in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster.