# Molecular Genetics of Evolutionary Innovations

> **NIH NIH R35** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS · 2024 · $21,308

## Abstract

Project summary (From R35)
 “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 sequences 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:** 11031063
- **Project number:** 3R35GM122592-07S1
- **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:** $21,308
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2024-01-01 → 2025-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11031063

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11031063, Molecular Genetics of Evolutionary Innovations (3R35GM122592-07S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11031063. Licensed CC0.

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