About the Lab

A series of population and experimental studies of phenotypic variability allowed us to formulate the basis of the population-phenogenetic approach or, more generally, the population biology of development as a frontier research area aimed at assessing the homeostasis of development in natural populations.

The study of developmental stability (based on the assessment of the significance of random developmental variability, the value of which turns out to be minimal under optimal conditions on the basis of genetic coadaptation) offers an opportunity to characterize the nature of the observed phenotypic diversity and its possible changes in the course of population dynamics and microevolutionary transformations. This makes it possible to approach the assessment of population dynamics mechanisms (both a decrease in the developmental variability value under optimal conditions and its increase in the case of an overcrowding effect can be observed with an increase in abundance, which has been demonstrated in the study of insects and mammals). The increase of developmental variability at the periphery of the species habitat can be observed against the background of a decrease in genetic variability. The decrease of developmental stability at the ecological periphery of the species habitat is replaced by its recovery in the course of adaptation to new conditions and change of the optimum. Evaluation of developmental canalization and plasticity allows us to approach the identification of ontogenetic mechanisms of emergence of directed phenotypic changes during microevolution and restoration of features of microphylogenesis (which has been shown for reptiles).

The general nature of the processes that underlie developmental homeostasis is evidenced by the similarity of the data obtained in determining the optimal developmental conditions by such different indicators as the level of random variability of development and efficiency of the energetic metabolism, enzymatic activity and rhythm of growth processes, cytogenetic stability and characteristics of the immune status. The study of developmental stability turns out to be an important ontogenetic characteristic of the state of populations, which opens up the possibility to monitor the state of biological systems both under natural conditions and under anthropogenic influences, including climate change.

The assessment of intra- and interspecific variability at the level of phenotypic trajectory studies opens up new opportunities for revealing the mechanisms of shape formation indicating the role of heterochronies in the formation of phenotypic diversity and sympatric speciation (in fish).

Evaluation of recording structures (cement and dentin of teeth, bone tissue) that record the features of postnatal ontogenesis in the form of annual and intra-annual layers opens up the possibility to characterize the individual development and state of populations, analyze intra- and interpopulation variability (in mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish).

A promising area of research is the assessment of homeostatic mechanisms of stability of biological systems of different levels (from organism to community), identifying their correlation and the role of ontogenetic stability. An important task in this case is to assess the ratio of homeostatic mechanisms of state stability (and the associated inhibition in the response of the system to a certain impact, or hysteresis) and developmental stability (or homeostasis).

Key words 

fluctuating asymmetry; developmental noise; developmental stability; canalization of development; homeorhesis; developmental biology; population biology; population dynamic; climate change.

Laboratory members

Vladimir M. Zakharov, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Head of the Laboratory

Sergey S. Alekseyev, PhD, Leading Researcher

Natalya A. Zakharova - engineer

Daria V. Kapitanova, PhD, Researcher

Mikhail V. Mina, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Leading Researcher

Aleksandr A. Minin, PhD, Senior Researcher

Ilya E. Trofimov, PhD, Researcher

Tatiana B. Trofimova, engineer

Fedor N. Shkil, PhD, Senior Researcher

Dmitry V. Shchepotkin, engineer