Introduction: N C Huxley B Mac Oh Carroll, Carroll Gould, Stephen Jay yeah D-D-D-D-Davidson and Peter Bm
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See one cell divide and decide on a thousand fates D
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Did you ever figure how they know? (B Mac) Bm
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We are built of modules combined in a planned out way D
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Each new piece must be told where to go Oh
Bm
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Now there's a science helping us to understand
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How our cells encode this architectural plan
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Signalling each other with genetic tools oh (oh yeah)
Bm
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Wow phenotype the interface for mouse and man
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Genotype the files and the subprograms
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What then are the switches, circuit boards and boot code?
Bm
Evo-Devo
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Looking at the logic in the ways that we grow
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Every gene directed by a signal key code
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Proteins that can activate, enhance or veto
Bm
Evo-Devo
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Signals are controlled by other genes that signal
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Calculating in a network labyrinthal
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Where the heart and liver and the hands and feet go
Bm
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Signal mapping tells each region what it ought to be yo
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With circuits so deeply built upon
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They're older than the Pale-o (The Paleozoic Era baby)
Bm
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In a crucial pathway changes tend to get torpedoed
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Where they go calamity goes
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As this cyclopic sheep knows
Bm
See down they cascade like a domino
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The path that makes us optical
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Back before we blew up the cambrian like a bomb bomb
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Now my eye protein can make you see out of your bom bom
Bm
And Hedgehog and its relatives like Indian and Sonic
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Set up set up in a gradient on segments embryonic
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Split forebrains and asymmetric parts depend upon it
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Flipping on genetic switches and logic
Bm
From devo to evo; Adult and embryo
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Mostly don't evolve in the genes of the genome
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Safer the mutation aimed at regulation
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Keep the building blocks and swap their activation
Bm
From devo to evo; Parts have alter egos
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Homologs evolved from repeats in the schema
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Switch a couple bases in the proper places
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You'll be watching flies grow legs out of their faces oh yeah
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Bm
Evo-Devo
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Stick around for Modern Synthesis the sequel
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Only by combining can a new theory grow
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Evolution and development amigos
Bm
Evo-Devo
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Signals trigger patterns of complexity so
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Switching up the switches of a signalling node
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Gives a modular and simple way to evolve
Bm
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Look at how our spinal segments generate a neat row
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Built on a molecular clock
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One cycle, one vertebra (One vertebra one vertebra baby)
Bm
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Speeding up its rate is snakes' developmental cheat code
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That and where a lizard's feet grow
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They turn off distal aminos
Bm
Evo-Devo
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This is how we go from single cells to people
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Every generation and in life primeval
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Life in variations endless and beautiful
Bm
From devo to evo; Larva to mosquito
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Patterns are resolved as the signals pro (ceed yo)
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Map out a gene with a glow tag
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Kill it with a morpholino(Short oligo morpholi (no baby))
Bm
From devo to evo; Voyage of the Beagle
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Body plans evolve when proteins steer the (genome)
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In this manner life's beauty grows
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Aesthetica in vivo
Bm
Evo-Devo