Alessandro Minelli
Born (1948-12-20) 20 December 1948 (age 75)
Treviso, Italy
Alma materUniversity of Padova 1966–1970
Known forEvo-devo
Scientific career
FieldsZoology, evo-devo
InstitutionsUniversity of Padova

Alessandro Minelli (born 20 December 1948) is an Italian biologist, formerly a professor of zoology in the Faculty of Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences of the University of Padova, mainly working on evo-devo subjects.

Biography

Alessandro Minelli studied Natural Sciences at the University of Padova 1966–70 with a master's degree in 1970. From 1987 to 2011, Minelli was a Full Professor of Zoology at the University of Padova.

Activity in international organisations

Academic memberships

Scientific contributions

Minelli is known for his studies in evolutionary developmental biology, or evo-devo. His main contributions are about the conceptual foundations of this discipline.[3][4][5][6][7] In his search for an intellectual framework common to evolutionary biology and developmental biology, he has strongly argued against the widespread adultocentrism,[3] that is, interpreting development, in a more or less distinct teleological vein, as a process targeted to the production of an adult animal or plant. At variance with the most popular trend in evo-devo, which is based on comparative developmental genetics and has a clear focus on early stages of embryonic development, the approach defended by Minelli is strongly rooted in comparative morphology and aims to extend to postembryonic development. His approach is based on revisiting the traditional concepts of homology. According to Minelli, the homology relationships between two structures is necessarily limited to selected features of those structures, thus requiring the adoption of a factorial or combinatorial concept of homology.[8]

Minelli has introduced new concepts, such as axis paramorphism[9] (useful for understanding the evolutionary relationships between the main axis of the body and its appendages) and those of eosegment and merosegment,[10] through which he suggests a radical revisitation of the architecture of the body of segmented animals.[11][12][13] Minelli has also explored the implication of evo-devo for biological systematics,[14][15] speciation[16] and the evolution of life cycles.[17][18]

Publications

Books

Awards

References

  1. ^ "List of members of the Accademia Gioenia di Catania".
  2. ^ "A. MInelli CV". Archived from the original on 2012-12-27. Retrieved 2013-03-30.
  3. ^ a b <Minelli, A. (2003), The Development of Animal Form, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  4. ^ <Minelli, A. (2009), Perspectives in Animal Phylogeny and Evolution, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  5. ^ <Minelli, A. (2010), “Evolutionary developmental biology does not offer a significant challenge to the neoDarwinian paradigm,” pp. 213–226 in Ayala F.J. & Arp R. (eds.) Contemporary debates in Philosophy of Biology, Malden, Massachusetts: Wiley-Blackwell.
  6. ^ <Minelli, A. (2011), Minelli, A. “Development, an open-ended segment of life.” Biological Theory 6 (1): 4–15.
  7. ^ <Minelli, A. (2011), “A principle of developmental inertia,” pp. 116–133 in B. Hallgrímsson and B.K. Hall (eds.) Epigenetics: Linking genotype and phenotype in development and evolution, Berkeley-Los Angeles- London, University of California Press.
  8. ^ <Minelli A. (1998), "Molecules, developmental modules and phenotypes: A combinatorial approach to homology." Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 9 (3): 340–347.
  9. ^ <Minelli A. (2000), “Limbs and tail as evolutionarily diverging duplicates of the main body axis.” Evolution & Development 2 (3): 157–165.
  10. ^ <Minelli A. (2000), “Holomeric vs. meromeric segmentation: A tale of centipedes, leeches, and rhombomeres.” Evolution & Development 2 (1): 35–48.
  11. ^ <Minelli A. (2001), “A three-phase model of arthropod segmentation.” Development, Genes and Evolution 211 (10): 509-521.
  12. ^ <Minelli A. & Fusco Giuseppe (2004), “Evo-devo perspectives on segmentation: model organisms, and beyond.” Trends in Ecology and Evolution 19 (8): 423–429.
  13. ^ <Hughes Nigel C., Minelli A. & Fusco G. (2006), “The ontogeny of trilobite segmentation: a comparative approach.” Paleobiology 32 (4): 603–628.
  14. ^ <Minelli A. (2007), “Invertebrate taxonomy and evolutionary developmental biology.” Zootaxa 1668: 55–60 (2007)
  15. ^ <Minelli, A. (2009), “Phylo-evo-devo: combining phylogenetics with evolutionary developmental biology.” BMC Biology 7:36; doi 10.1186/1741-7007-7-36
  16. ^ <Minelli A. & Fusco G. (2012), “On the evolutionary developmental biology of speciation.” Evolutionary Biology 39 (2): 242–254; doi 10.1007/s11692-012-9175-6.
  17. ^ < Minelli A., Brena Carlo, Deflorian Gianluca, Maruzzo Diego & Fusco G. (2006), “From embryo to adult. beyond the conventional periodization of arthropod development.” Development Genes and Evolution 216 (7-8): 373–383
  18. ^ <Minelli A. & Fusco G. (2010), “Developmental plasticity and the evolution of animal complex life cycles.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 365 (140): 631–640, doi:10.1098/rstb.2009.0268.
  19. ^ "A. Minelli CV". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-09-29.

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