“The Genetic Tool‐Kit”: The Life‐History of an Important Metaphor

Abstract

The term the genetic tool-kit sums up a crucial fact that, initially, was regarded with astonishment: the existence of conserved developmental functions by key regulatory genes throughout all the bilaterian animal phyla. This chapter describes the historical background, genesis, significance-and limitations-of the term “the genetic tool-kit”. Next, the chapter discusses why a continued focus on the concept and use of the term may retard the further maturation of evolutionary developmental biology. Such a history of rise-and-fall of the usefulness of an expression is not atypical for metaphors in science. At first, they can be invaluable aids to understanding but, with repeated use, they inevitably lose their freshness and as new findings appear, they begin to seem less apt. In the end, metaphors in science usually outlive their usefulness, with their final function being to highlight what they leave unexplained.

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