Final answer:
Evo-devo suggests that morphological changes in an organism can arise from alterations in the expression of regulatory genes, impacting the interactions with the genes they regulate.
Step-by-step explanation:
The field of evo-devo proposes that many major morphological changes result from changes in gene expression of regulatory genes. The premise for this argument is that these changes in gene expression will change the outcome of interactions with all genes that regulatory genes interact with.
This is because regulatory genes, such as homeobox genes, produce transcription factors that control the activities of other genes, and shifts in their expression can result in different developmental outcomes. Changing the expression of these genes is less likely to interfere with the protein's ability to perform its role than changes in the protein coding sequence, which can lead to more drastic alterations to the protein's function and, consequently, to the organism's development.