# Molecular Genetics of Evolutionary Innovations

> **NIH NIH R35** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS · 2024 · $551,535

## Abstract

Project summary
 “Evolutionary innovation” refers to the origin of entirely new traits, as opposed to the modification of
existing traits. Although such novelties are relatively rare, all the complexity and diversity of life have
ultimately been shaped by evolutionary innovations that occurred in a nested pattern, with every innovation
dependent on many earlier novelties. Despite their critical importance for everything from geological
nutrient cycles that support all life on Earth to human sentience that distinguishes us from our closest
relatives, the molecular mechanisms of evolutionary innovations are understood far less than the evolution
of existing traits. This is true at all levels of biological organization, from single molecules to the most
complex features of animal form and function. We understand the evolution of existing organs and cell
types better than the origin of new ones; quantitative variation in gene expression has been explored in
greater detail than the origin of new regulatory pathways; much more is known about the evolution of
existing genes than about the origin of new genes, and so on. It is this gap in knowledge that motivates our
work.
 To achieve a comprehensive understanding of evolutionary innovations, it is necessary to connect
novelties at all levels of biological organization: from new functional elements in the genome, to new genetic
pathways, to new morphological structures. Research in our lab will advance in several directions, using
the Drosophila model system. First, we will identify the key DNA sequence changes responsible for the
origin of a new morphological structure that evolved recently in Drosophila. Second, we will characterize
the cell differentiation pathway that translates these changes into novel morphologies and reconstruct how
this pathway was assembled in the course of evolution. Third, we will look more broadly at how ancestral
genes acquire new expression patterns. We will test whether cooption of old genes into new tissues
involves modification of existing regulatory sequences or the origin of new regulatory elements. Finally, we
will reconstruct the origin of new regulatory elements from non-functional ancestral sequences. By focusing
on new genes that evolved within natural populations of a single species, we will identify the series of
mutations that create new regulatory elements in the genome. Together, these approaches will promote a
deep mechanistic understanding of evolutionary innovations.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10756472
- **Project number:** 5R35GM122592-07
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS
- **Principal Investigator:** ARTYOM KOPP
- **Activity code:** R35 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $551,535
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-04-01 → 2027-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10756472

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10756472, Molecular Genetics of Evolutionary Innovations (5R35GM122592-07). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10756472. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*