Noname manuscript No. (will be inserted by the editor) Development and Microbiology Aja Watkins Received: December 12, 2020 / Accepted: June 10, 2021 Abstract On the basis of findings from developmental biology, some researchers have argued that evolutionary theory needs to be significantly updated. Advo- cates of such a \developmental update" have, among other things, suggested that we need to re-conceptualize units of selection, that we should expand our view of inheritance to include environmental as well as genetic and epigenetic factors, that we should think of organisms and their environment as involved in reciprocal causation, and that we should reevaluate the rates of evolution- ary change. However, many of these same conclusions could be reached on the basis of other evidence, namely from microbiology. In this paper, I ask why microbiological evidence has not had a similarly large influence on calls to update biological theory, and argue that there is no principled reason to focus on developmental as opposed to microbiological evidence in support of these revisions to evolutionary theory. I suggest that the focus on developmental bi- ology is more likely attributable to historical accident. I will also discuss some possible room for overlap between developmental and microbiology, despite the historical separation of these two subdisciplines. Keywords microbiology · developmental biology · units of selection · inheritance · reciprocal causation · evolutionary rates 1 Introduction Developmental biological evidence has provided the impetus for some scholars to argue that biological theory, and evolutionary theory in particular, is in need of revision. Developmental biologists have, among other things, shown that the relationship between genes and phenotypes is rather more complicated than Aja Watkins Boston University E-mail:
[email protected] 2 Aja Watkins a one-to-one correspondence, and have demonstrated the importance of epi- genetic factors, including in patterns of inheritance.