DOCSLIB.ORG

The Dance Sourcebook

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

The Dance Sourcebook This sourcebook is modelled on the Music of Life Sourcebook in collating articles that respond to the wish from readers to have more detail on the sources of the ideas and observations that form the basis of the book. First, though, what is the argument about? Why replace Neo-Darwinism? 1 Why replace NEO -­‐Darwinism? The debate in a nutshell The books on the musicoflife.website, The Music of Life (2006) and Dance to the Tune of Life (2016), deconstruct standard evolutionary bioloGy, which is usually referred Neo to as -­‐Darwinism or the Modern Synthesis. The books propose inteGrated an synthesis instead. Why is that necessary? -­‐ Isn’t Neo Darwinism simply Darwin’s Origin of Species updated by 20th and 21st century discoveries in ? Genetics Isn’t it obvious that his central idea of Natural Selection must be correct: successful orGanisms transmit their characteristics to the next generation? In fact it is almost a tautology. What succeeds must succeed. From portrait harles of C Darwin in The Royal Society. Well, yes. But Darwin was -­‐ not a Neo Darwinist. In fact he got two other contrary ideas largely correct: • He acknowledGed that Natural Selection was not the only process involved. He realised that organisms actively select other organisms, as for sexual example in selection, and in doing so must partially direct their evolution. 2 • Second, he agreed with Lamarck on the inheritance of acquired characteristics and even proposed a theory of Pangenesis on how it could is work. H idea is almost identical ern with mod experimental findings on exosomes and transmission of RNAs and DNA to the germline from the soma. Neo-­‐Darwinism opposes or downplays these processes. In many evolutionary biology textbooks you will not even find them referred to. Moreover, Lamarck is usually presented in very deroGatory lanGuaGe. By contrast, Darwin praised Lamarck as a “justly celebrated naturalist …. who upholds the doctrine that all species, including man, are descended from other face species.” (Pre to fourth edition of The Origin of ). Species Neo-­‐Darwinism was originally formulated to expunge these Darwinian ideas from evolutionary bioloGy. The central problems are • Neo-­‐Darwinist ideas favour gene -­‐centric views of biology, which Gets causation in biology the wrong way round. DNA is a completely passive molecule until it is activated by the organism to enable RNAs to be produced that in turn form templates for the production of proteins. DNA cannot even be transmitted faithfully until massively corrected by the organism. It is not therefore ‘immortal the replicator’. See articles in this sourcebook: Evolution viewed from Physics, Physiology and Medicine and Central Dogma or Central Debate? • Neo-­‐Darwinists have problems with the idea ms that organis are agents with purposive behaviour. Yet, agency is central to understanding life. It has to be central to the process of evolution. See article in this sourcebook: Was the Watchmaker Blind? • Neo-­‐Darwinism misunderstands the role of biological stochasticity, which is Given primacy in the oriGin of variation. In fact, stochasticity is actively harnessed by organisms to create novelty. See articles in this sourcebook: Evolution viewed from Physics, Physiology and Medicine, Was the Watchmaker Blind? and Harnessing stochasticity: How do organisms make choices? 3 Some evolutionary biologists redefine Neo-­‐Darwinism to avoid these problems, but if a theory is redefined to mean e the precise opposit of what it was intended to achieve, it is quite simply no lonGer different from the Darwinism it opposed. SUMMARY DIAGRAM How do Darwinism, the Modern Synthesis and the InteGrated Synthesis relate to each other? The diagram represents the fact that Darwin’s view of inheritance included the inheritance uired of acq characteristics, which was excluded by neo-­‐Darwinism. Darwin’s concept of inheritance is therefore shown as beinG partly outside -­‐ the neo Darwinist modern synthesis. So also are his ideas on sexual selection. The diagram also represents the features that lie outside the range -­‐ of neo Darwinism as defined by Weismann and Wallace. The features of that theory were excluded are shown as correspondinG -­‐ bold face items. The highlighted items on the far left correspond with the highlighted items at the far riGht (from the article in this sourcebook: Exosomes, Gemmules, Pangenesis and Darwin). 4 As of July 2019, the sourcebook contains 10 articles: Noble, D. (2017) Evolution viewed from physics, and physioloGy medicine. Interface Focus, 7, 20160159. Introduces the fact that organisms harness stochasticity to generate functionality. Random variations have more siGnificance than they are Given in neo-­‐Darwinism. Noble, R. & Noble, D. (2017) Was the watchmaker blind? Or was she one-­‐eyed? Biology, 6, 47. OrGanisms and their interactinG populations lved have evo mechanisms by which they can harness ty blind stochastici and so Generate rapid functional responses to environmental challenGes. They can achieve this by re-­‐organising their genomes and/or their regulatory networks. Evolution does therefore have partial direction. The direction is by organisms themselves. Noble, D. (2018) Central DoGma or Physiology Central Debate? , 33, 246-­‐249. The Central Dogma of molecular biology has been widely misinterpreted o t be a modern version of the Weismann Barrier. This confuses -­‐ cellular level inheritance with DNA inheritance and is therefore incorrect. Noble, D. (2018) Lost in – Translation a second letter from Lamarck. Physiology News, 111, 6-­‐7. Lamarck is represented in standard evolutionary biology textbooks as favourinG a ladder of life, as contrasted with Darwin’s tree of life. In fact, Lamarck retracted of his ladder life idea and formulated a very clear tree of life well before Darwin. 5 Noble, R. & D. Noble, (2018) Harnessing stochasticity: How do organisms make choices? Chaos , 28, 106309. Harnessing stochasticity is the way in which orGanisms become free aGents. A free choice is both unpredictable in prospect and rational in retrospect. Neuman, Y, e, Nobl D. & Cohen, Y. 2018. Is the whole different from the sum of its parts? A proposed procedure for measurinG divergence from additivity. International Journal of General . Systems 7, 665-­‐678. That the whole is greater than its parts is a central assumption of integrative -­‐ multi level interpretations of bioloGy. Demonstrating this mathematically is a big challenge. This article shows how category theory can be used to develop an approach to the problem. Jablonka, E. & Noble, D. (2019) Systemic of inteGration inheritance systems. Current Opinion in Systems , Biology 13, 52-­‐58. An inheritable trait can be described as an attractor in a developmental landscape constructed by networks of inputs at underlying and overlying levels of organization. This approach could enable the development of a systemic, dynamic and predictive model of inheritance Noble, D. (2019) Exosomes, Gemmules, Pangenesis and Darwin. In Exosomes in Health and Disease, Elsevier Lamarck and Darwin both produced theories to explain how acquired characteristics could be inherited. They realized that somethinG would need to transmit information from the soma to the Germ cells. Their theories were very similar, i.e. that minute particles or fluids could be ody transported by b fluids. Lamarck called them ‘suble fluids’; Darwin called them ‘gemmules’. Today they have been discovered and we call them exosomes. Exosomes and body fluids can transmit both RNA and DNA to the germline. 6 Noble, R. & Noble, A-­‐ D. (2019) merGence of bioloGical systems. In Handbook of the Philosophy of Emergence RoutledGe, 387-­‐399. There is therefore no privileged direction of emergence, the upper levels constrain the events at the lower levels just as much as the lower levels are necessary r for those uppe level constraints to exist. To emphasise this point, we introduce the concept of a-­‐merGence, which expresses the lack of causal directionality. We illustrate these points with a major test case: Schrödinger’s distinction between physics and biology in which he proposed that physics is the generation of order from molecular disorder, while bioloGy is the f Generation o order from molecular order. This characterization of bioloGy is physically impossible. Modern biology has confirmed both that this is impossible and that, on the contrary, organisms harness stochasticity at low levels to Generate their functionality. Noble, R, Tasaki, K, Noble, PJ, & BioloGical Noble, D (2019) Relativity Requires Circular Causality but Not Symmetry o, of Causation: S Where, What and re When A the Boundaries? Frontiers in Physiology, 10, 827. The principle of Biological v Relati ity is that r the e is no privileged level of causation in organisms. There must therefore be boundaries between the levels of organization across which the levels influence each other. This is the first article to systematically answer the question how the forms of causation between the levels differ. It also reviews the evidence for downward causation in a variety of physioloGical examples. 7 Downloaded from http://rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org/ on October 28, 2017 Evolution viewed from physics, physiology and medicine rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org Denis Noble Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PT, UK DN, 0000-0002-3013-3694 Review Stochasticity is harnessed by organisms to generate functionality. Random- ness does not, therefore,
Recommended publications
  • Epigenetics Landscape (Fig

    Epigenetics Landscape (Fig

    © 2015. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd | The Journal of Experimental Biology (2015) 218, 816-818 doi:10.1242/jeb.120071 CLASSICS Conrad Waddington and ‘decisions’ that could be represented as exploited plasticity that is already ‘valleys’ and ‘forks’ in a developmental present in the population. That strongly the origin of epigenetics landscape (Fig. 1). He knew from his suggests that all the alleles (gene developmental studies that embryo fruit variants) necessary for the inheritance of flies could be persuaded to show different the characteristic were already present in thorax and wing structures, simply by the population, but not initially in any changing the environmental temperature or particular individuals in the correct by a chemical stimulus. In his landscape combination. The experiment simply diagram, this could be represented as a brings them together. This is a small manipulation in slope that would lead modification of the pattern of the genome to one channel in the landscape being in response to the environmental change, favoured over another, so that the adult but not in a way that requires any new could show a different phenotype starting mutations. I came to this conclusion from the same genotype. before reading Waddington’s (1957) Epigenetics book, The Strategy of the Genes. But it is Denis Noble discusses Conrad The next step in his experiment was to in fact one of Waddington’s own ideas! Waddington’s classic paper, ‘The genetic select for and breed from the animals that He writes ‘There is no … reason which ’ assimilation of the bithorax phenotype , displayed the new characteristic.
  • Richard Dawkins

    Richard Dawkins

    RICHARD DAWKINS HOW A SCIENTIST CHANGED THE WAY WE THINK Reflections by scientists, writers, and philosophers Edited by ALAN GRAFEN AND MARK RIDLEY 1 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Oxford University Press 2006 with the exception of To Rise Above © Marek Kohn 2006 and Every Indication of Inadvertent Solicitude © Philip Pullman 2006 The moral rights of the authors have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2006 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should
  • Metazoan Ribosome Inactivating Protein Encoding Genes Acquired by Horizontal Gene Transfer Received: 30 September 2016 Walter J

    Metazoan Ribosome Inactivating Protein Encoding Genes Acquired by Horizontal Gene Transfer Received: 30 September 2016 Walter J

    www.nature.com/scientificreports OPEN Metazoan Ribosome Inactivating Protein encoding genes acquired by Horizontal Gene Transfer Received: 30 September 2016 Walter J. Lapadula1, Paula L. Marcet2, María L. Mascotti1, M. Virginia Sanchez-Puerta3 & Accepted: 5 April 2017 Maximiliano Juri Ayub1 Published: xx xx xxxx Ribosome inactivating proteins (RIPs) are RNA N-glycosidases that depurinate a specific adenine residue in the conserved sarcin/ricin loop of 28S rRNA. These enzymes are widely distributed among plants and their presence has also been confirmed in several bacterial species. Recently, we reported for the first timein silico evidence of RIP encoding genes in metazoans, in two closely related species of insects: Aedes aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus. Here, we have experimentally confirmed the presence of these genes in mosquitoes and attempted to unveil their evolutionary history. A detailed study was conducted, including evaluation of taxonomic distribution, phylogenetic inferences and microsynteny analyses, indicating that mosquito RIP genes derived from a single Horizontal Gene Transfer (HGT) event, probably from a cyanobacterial donor species. Moreover, evolutionary analyses show that, after the HGT event, these genes evolved under purifying selection, strongly suggesting they play functional roles in these organisms. Ribosome inactivating proteins (RIPs, EC 3.2.2.22) irreversibly modify ribosomes through the depurination of an adenine residue in the conserved alpha-sarcin/ricin loop of 28S rRNA1–4. This modification prevents the binding of elongation factor 2 to the ribosome, arresting protein synthesis5, 6. The occurrence of RIP genes has been exper- imentally confirmed in a wide range of plant taxa, as well as in several species of Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria7–9.
  • The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins Is Another

    The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins Is Another

    BOOKS & ARTS COMMENT ooks about science tend to fall into two categories: those that explain it to lay people in the hope of cultivat- Bing a wide readership, and those that try to persuade fellow scientists to support a new theory, usually with equations. Books that achieve both — changing science and reach- ing the public — are rare. Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859) was one. The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins is another. From the moment of its publication 40 years ago, it has been a sparkling best-seller and a TERRY SMITH/THE LIFE IMAGES COLLECTION/GETTY SMITH/THE LIFE IMAGES TERRY scientific game-changer. The gene-centred view of evolution that Dawkins championed and crystallized is now central both to evolutionary theoriz- ing and to lay commentaries on natural history such as wildlife documentaries. A bird or a bee risks its life and health to bring its offspring into the world not to help itself, and certainly not to help its species — the prevailing, lazy thinking of the 1960s, even among luminaries of evolution such as Julian Huxley and Konrad Lorenz — but (uncon- sciously) so that its genes go on. Genes that cause birds and bees to breed survive at the expense of other genes. No other explana- tion makes sense, although some insist that there are other ways to tell the story (see K. Laland et al. Nature 514, 161–164; 2014). What stood out was Dawkins’s radical insistence that the digital information in a gene is effectively immortal and must be the primary unit of selection.
  • A Theological Perspective on the Phenomenon of Life: Introduction Into the Bios, Psyche, and Zoe

    A Theological Perspective on the Phenomenon of Life: Introduction Into the Bios, Psyche, and Zoe

    ROCZNIKI TEOLOGICZNE TOM LXVII, zeszyt 2 – 2020 DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rt20672-7 ANNA PĘDRAK KAMIL DUSZEK A THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE PHENOMENON OF LIFE: INTRODUCTION INTO THE BIOS, PSYCHE, AND ZOE A b s t r a c t . Life is such a beautiful and unique phenomenon. It cannot be described by a single definition, as it manifests itself in many different ways. Therefore, the phenomenon of life must be cap- tured as a whole and by including its essential planes. The authors of the paper did interdisciplinary research. Their task was an exploration of the issue of life on three planes: bios (life in its core manifes- tations), psyche (intelligent and conscious life), and zoe (life that transcends itself). The collected data gives an appropriate perspective for theological insight. This approach determines a methodology that is interdisciplinary and very theological in character. This in-depth perspective enables the whole phe- nomenon to be understood in its transcendental function. Life from its very inception emerges toward “something more.” The final goal of this transcendental dynamism is ever-living God. Key words: bios; psyche; zoe; religion and science; transcendentality; contemporary theology. 1. INTRODUCTION Is it possible to capture the essence of life? At present, many different branches of science dealing with the issue of life provide very interesting data. However, each of them captures this phenomenon in a narrow and precise field, so although their conclusions are pertinent, they are also limited. Despite the tremendous intel- Anna Pędrak, MA (can. licentiate) – doctoral student of dogmatic theology at the Faculty of Theology of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin; e-mail: [email protected]; ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9813-5277.
  • Daniel C. Dennett

    Daniel C. Dennett

    KINDS OF MINDS Toward an Understanding of Consciousness DANIEL C. DENNETT A Member of the Perseus Books Group -iii- The Science Masters Series is a global publishing venture consisting of original science books written by leading scientists and published by a worldwide team of twenty-six publishers assembled by John Brockman. The series was conceived by Anthony Cheetham of Orion Publishers and John Brockman of Brockman Inc., a New York literary agency, and developed in coordination with BasicBooks. The Science Masters name and marks are owned by and licensed to the publisher by Brockman Inc. Copyright © 1996 by Daniel Dennett. Published by BasicBooks A Member of the Perseus Books Group All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address Basic Books, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022-5299. Designed by Joan Greenfield ISBN 0-465-07351-4 (pbk.) 99 00 01 ❖/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 -iv- CONTENTS Preface vii 1 What Kinds of Minds Are There? 1 Knowing Your Own Mind 1 We Mind-Havers, We Minders 3 Words and Minds 8 The Problem of Incommunicative Minds 12 2 Intentionality: The Intentional Systems Approach 19 Simple Beginnings: The Birth of Agency 19 Adopting the Intentional Stance 27 The Misguided Goal of Propositional Precision 41 Original and Derived Intentionality 50 3 The Body and Its Minds 57 From Sensitivity to Sentience? 57 The
  • Service History July 2012 AGM - September 2018 AGM

    Service History July 2012 AGM - September 2018 AGM

    Service History July 2012 AGM - September 2018 AGM The information in this Service History is true and complete to the best of The Society’s knowledge. If you are aware of any errors please let the Governance and Risk Manager know by email: [email protected] Service History Index DATES PAGE # 5 July 2012 – 24 July 2013 Page 1 24 July 2013 – 1 July 2014 Page 14 1 July 2014 – 7 July 2015 Page 28 7 July 2015 – 31 July 2016 Page 42 31 July 2016 – 12 July 2017 Page 60 12 July 2017 – 16 September 2018 Page 82 Service History: July 2012 AGM – Sept 2018 AGM Introduction Up until 2006 the service history of The Society’s members was captured in Grey Books. It was also documented between 1990-2013 in The Society’s old database iMIS, which will be migrated to the CRM member directory adopted in 2016. This document collates missing service history data from July 2012 to September 2018. Grey Books were relaunched as ‘Grey Records’ in 2019 beginning with the period from the September AGM 2018 up until July AGM 2019. There will now be a Grey Record published every year reflecting the previous year’s service history. The Grey Record will now showcase service history from Member Forum to Member Forum (typically held in the Winter). 5 July 2012 – 24 July 2013 Honorary Officers (and Trustees) POSITION NAME President Jonathan Ashmore Deputy President Richard Vaughan-Jones Honorary Treasurer Rod Dimaline Education & Outreach Committee Chair Blair Grubb Meetings Committee Chair David Wyllie Policy Committee Chair Mary Morrell Membership & Grants Committee
  • Can Systems Medicine Integrate Scientific and Humanistic

    Can Systems Medicine Integrate Scientific and Humanistic

    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE bs_bs_banner provided by NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice ISSN 1365-2753 Getting personal: can systems medicine integrate scientific and humanistic conceptions of the patient? Henrik Vogt MD,1 Elling Ulvestad MD Dr Med,3,4 Thor Eirik Eriksen Cand Polit5,6 and Linn Getz MD PhD2 1PhD Candidate, 2Professor, General Practice Research Unit, Department of Public Health and General Practice, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway 3Professor, Department of Microbiology, The Gade Institute, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway 4Professor, Department of Clinical Science, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway 5PhD Candidate, Department of Work and Environmental Medicine, Hospital of North Norway, Tromsø, Norway 6Senior Advisor, Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education, Department of Philosophy, UiT – The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway Keywords Abstract agency, biopsychosocial medicine, downward causation, emergence, Rationale, aims and objectives The practicing doctor, and most obviously the primary experience, free will, general practice, care clinician who encounters the full complexity of patients, faces several fundamental but generalism, holism, humanistic medicine, intrinsically related theoretical and practical challenges – strongly actualized by so-called intentionality, medically unexplained medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) and multi-morbidity. Systems medicine, which is symptoms, mind-body problem, the emerging application of systems biology to medicine and a merger of molecular multi-morbidity, narrative medicine, biomedicine, systems theory and mathematical modelling, has recently been proposed as a ontology, patient-centred medicine, primary care-centered strategy for medicine that promises to meet these challenges.
  • How a Generation Was Misled About Natural Selection

    How a Generation Was Misled About Natural Selection

    Gabora, L. (2011). How a Generation Was Misled About Natural Selection. Psychology Today (online). http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mindbloggling How a Generation Was Misled About Natural Selection Subtitle: Natural Selection: How it Works, How it Applies to Culture Liane Gabora Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia Okanagan Campus, Arts Building, 333 University Way, Kelowna BC, V1V 1V7, CANADA For 'Mindbloggling' column, Psychology Today Abstract This article explains how natural selection works and how it has been inappropriately applied to the description of cultural change. It proposes an alternative evolutionary explanation for cultural evolution that describes it in terms of communal exchange. When science is explained to the general public it is necessary to simplify. Inevitably details get left out, details that some consider important, and the ‘sexy' parts of the story get played up. But so long as the overall picture is more or less right, scientists generally appreciate the efforts of popular science writers, the press, and in some cases their fellow colleagues, to make their work accessible to a wider audience. The public in turn benefits from the opportunity to see the world they live in from a new perspective, and consider questions they might not otherwise have considered. Sometimes, though, the baby gets thrown out with the bathwater. The ‘babyless' version of a scientific story may be a hit nonetheless. Unless one has advanced training in a highly specialized area of a scientific discipline, it may appear to make sense. In most cases, the 1 misrepresentation of science doesn't make much difference; life goes on as normal.
  • Is the Germline Immortal and Continuous? a Discussion in Light of Ipscs and Germline Regeneration

    Is the Germline Immortal and Continuous? a Discussion in Light of Ipscs and Germline Regeneration

    Is the Germline Immortal and Continuous? A Discussion in Light of iPSCs and Germline Regeneration 1 1 Kate MacCord and​ B. Duygu Özpolat ​ ​ 1 - Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA, USA 1 ABSTRACT The germline gives rise to gametes, is the hereditary cell lineage, and is often called immortal and continuous. However, what exactly is immortal and continuous about the germline has recently come under scrutiny. The notion of an immortal and continuous germline has been ​ around for over 130 years, and has led to the concept of a barrier between the germline and soma (the “Weismann barrier”). One repercussion of such a barrier is the understanding that when the germline is lost, soma cannot replace it, rendering the organism infertile. Recent research on induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and germline regeneration raise questions about the impermeability of the Weismann barrier and the designation of the germline as immortal and continuous. How we conceive of the germline and its immortality shapes what we perceive to be possible in animal biology, such as whether somatic cells contribute to the germline in some metazoans during normal development or regeneration. We argue that reassessing the universality of germline immortality and continuity across all metazoans leads to big and exciting open questions about the germ-soma cell distinction, cell reprogramming, germline editing, and even evolution. 2 1.0 Introduction The germline is the lineage of reproductive cells that includes gametes and their precursors, including primordial germ cells and germline stem cells. Because the germline gives rise to the gametes, it is the hereditary cell lineage, and is ultimately responsible for all cells in an organism’s body, including the next generation of the germline, stem cells, and other somatic cells.
  • Reticulate Evolution Everywhere

    Reticulate Evolution Everywhere

    Reticulate Evolution Everywhere Nathalie Gontier Abstract Reticulation is a recurring evolutionary pattern found in phylogenetic reconstructions of life. The pattern results from how species interact and evolve by mechanisms and processes including symbiosis; symbiogenesis; lateral gene transfer (that occurs via bacterial conjugation, transformation, transduction, Gene Transfer Agents, or the movements of transposons, retrotransposons, and other mobile genetic elements); hybridization or divergence with gene flow; and infec- tious heredity (induced either directly by bacteria, bacteriophages, viruses, pri- ons, protozoa and fungi, or via vectors that transmit these pathogens). Research on reticulate evolution today takes on inter- and transdisciplinary proportions and is able to unite distinct research fields ranging from microbiology and molecular genetics to evolutionary biology and the biomedical sciences. This chapter sum- marizes the main principles of the diverse reticulate evolutionary mechanisms and situates them into the chapters that make up this volume. Keywords Reticulate evolution · Symbiosis · Symbiogenesis · Lateral Gene Transfer · Infectious agents · Microbiome · Viriome · Virolution · Hybridization · Divergence with gene flow · Evolutionary patterns · Extended Synthesis 1 Reticulate Evolution: Patterns, Processes, Mechanisms According to the Online Etymology Dictionary (http://www.etymonline.com), the word reticulate is an adjective that stems from the Latin words “re¯ticulātus” (having a net-like pattern) and re¯ticulum (little net). When scholars identify the evolution of life as being “reticulated,” they first and foremost refer to a recurring evolutionary pattern. N. Gontier (*) AppEEL—Applied Evolutionary Epistemology Lab, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 1 N. Gontier (ed.), Reticulate Evolution, Interdisciplinary Evolution Research 3, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-16345-1_1 2 N.
  • The Lamarckian Chicken and the Darwinian Egg Yitzhak Pilpel1* and Oded Rechavi2*

    The Lamarckian Chicken and the Darwinian Egg Yitzhak Pilpel1* and Oded Rechavi2*

    Pilpel and Rechavi Biology Direct (2015) 10:34 DOI 10.1186/s13062-015-0062-9 COMMENT Open Access The Lamarckian chicken and the Darwinian egg Yitzhak Pilpel1* and Oded Rechavi2* Abstract: “Which came first, the Chicken or the Egg?” We suggest this question is not a paradox. The Modern Synthesis envisions speciation through genetic changes in germ cells via random mutations, an “Egg first” scenario, but perhaps epigenetic inheritance mechanisms can transmit adaptive changes initiated in the soma (“Chicken first”). Reviewers: The article was reviewed by Dr. Eugene Koonin, Dr. Itai Yanai, Dr. Laura Landweber. Keywords: Evolution, Darwinian Evolution, Lamarckian Evolution, Modern Synthesis, Weismann Barrier, Epigenetic Inheritance, Transgenerational RNA Interference Background solution. Nevertheless, it is important to discuss why this In this commentary paper we wish to use the well- question is perceived as being paradoxical, and to exam- known “Chicken and Egg” paradox as a gateway for ine the true mystery that it holds; at the base of this discussing different processes of evolution. While in the dilemma stands an extremely important and unsolved biological sense this is not a paradox at all, the metaphor biological question: “Can the phenotype affect the is still useful because it allows examining of the distinc- genotype”? or put differently, “Can epigenetics translate tion between Lamarckian and Darwinian evolution, and into genetics”? specifically, since it enables us to raise an important and Asking the question in this manner allows mapping of unsolved question: “Can the phenotype affect the geno- the “Egg first” vs. the “Chicken first” options onto the type?” or in other words, “can epigenetics translate into distinction between Darwinian and Lamarckian evolu- genetics”? tion.