Evolution, Development, and the Predictable Genome

Evolution, Development, and the Predictable Genome
Author: David L. Stern
Publisher: Roberts Publishers
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2011
Genre: Science
ISBN:

Bringing evolutionary and developmental biology together, Evolution, Development, and the Predictable Genome uses the insights from generations of evolutionary and developmental biologists to form a solid foundation for future investigation of the genetic and developmental causes of diversity.

Adaptive Diversification

Adaptive Diversification
Author: Michael Doebeli
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2011-08-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1400838932

Understanding the mechanisms driving biological diversity remains a central problem in ecology and evolutionary biology. Traditional explanations assume that differences in selection pressures lead to different adaptations in geographically separated locations. This book takes a different approach and explores adaptive diversification--diversification rooted in ecological interactions and frequency-dependent selection. In any ecosystem, birth and death rates of individuals are affected by interactions with other individuals. What is an advantageous phenotype therefore depends on the phenotype of other individuals, and it may often be best to be ecologically different from the majority phenotype. Such rare-type advantage is a hallmark of frequency-dependent selection and opens the scope for processes of diversification that require ecological contact rather than geographical isolation. Michael Doebeli investigates adaptive diversification using the mathematical framework of adaptive dynamics. Evolutionary branching is a paradigmatic feature of adaptive dynamics that serves as a basic metaphor for adaptive diversification, and Doebeli explores the scope of evolutionary branching in many different ecological scenarios, including models of coevolution, cooperation, and cultural evolution. He also uses alternative modeling approaches. Stochastic, individual-based models are particularly useful for studying adaptive speciation in sexual populations, and partial differential equation models confirm the pervasiveness of adaptive diversification. Showing that frequency-dependent interactions are an important driver of biological diversity, Adaptive Diversification provides a comprehensive theoretical treatment of adaptive diversification.

Evolution

Evolution
Author: James Alan Shapiro
Publisher: Pearson Education
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2011
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 0132780933

This book proposes an important new paradigm for understanding biological evolution. Shapiro demonstrates why traditional views of evolution are inadequate to explain the latest evidence, and presents an alternative. His information- and systems-based approach integrates advances in symbiogenesis, epigenetics, and saltationism, and points toward an emerging synthesis of physical, information, and biological sciences.

Genomic Control Process

Genomic Control Process
Author: Isabelle S. Peter
Publisher: Academic Press
Total Pages: 461
Release: 2015-01-21
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0124047467

Genomic Control Process explores the biological phenomena around genomic regulatory systems that control and shape animal development processes, and which determine the nature of evolutionary processes that affect body plan. Unifying and simplifying the descriptions of development and evolution by focusing on the causality in these processes, it provides a comprehensive method of considering genomic control across diverse biological processes. This book is essential for graduate researchers in genomics, systems biology and molecular biology seeking to understand deep biological processes which regulate the structure of animals during development. - Covers a vast area of current biological research to produce a genome oriented regulatory bioscience of animal life - Places gene regulation, embryonic and postembryonic development, and evolution of the body plan in a unified conceptual framework - Provides the conceptual keys to interpret a broad developmental and evolutionary landscape with precise experimental illustrations drawn from contemporary literature - Includes a range of material, from developmental phenomenology to quantitative and logic models, from phylogenetics to the molecular biology of gene regulation, from animal models of all kinds to evidence of every relevant type - Demonstrates the causal power of system-level understanding of genomic control process - Conceptually organizes a constellation of complex and diverse biological phenomena - Investigates fundamental developmental control system logic in diverse circumstances and expresses these in conceptual models - Explores mechanistic evolutionary processes, illuminating the evolutionary consequences of developmental control systems as they are encoded in the genome

Environmental Epigenetics

Environmental Epigenetics
Author: L. Joseph Su
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 327
Release: 2015-05-18
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1447166787

This book examines the toxicological and health implications of environmental epigenetics and provides knowledge through an interdisciplinary approach. Included in this volume are chapters outlining various environmental risk factors such as phthalates and dietary components, life states such as pregnancy and ageing, hormonal and metabolic considerations and specific disease risks such as cancer cardiovascular diseases and other non-communicable diseases. Environmental Epigenetics imparts integrative knowledge of the science of epigenetics and the issues raised in environmental epidemiology. This book is intended to serve both as a reference compendium on environmental epigenetics for scientists in academia, industry and laboratories and as a textbook for graduate level environmental health courses. Environmental Epigenetics imparts integrative knowledge of the science of epigenetics and the issues raised in environmental epidemiology. This book is intended to serve both as a reference compendium on environmental epigenetics for scientists in academia, industry and laboratories and as a textbook for graduate level environmental health courses.

Convergent Evolution

Convergent Evolution
Author: George R. McGhee
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 335
Release: 2011
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0262016427

Convergent evolution occurs on all levels, from tiny organic molecules to entire ecosystems of species.

Improbable Destinies

Improbable Destinies
Author: Jonathan B. Losos
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2017-08-08
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0399184937

A major new book overturning our assumptions about how evolution works Earth’s natural history is full of fascinating instances of convergence: phenomena like eyes and wings and tree-climbing lizards that have evolved independently, multiple times. But evolutionary biologists also point out many examples of contingency, cases where the tiniest change—a random mutation or an ancient butterfly sneeze—caused evolution to take a completely different course. What role does each force really play in the constantly changing natural world? Are the plants and animals that exist today, and we humans ourselves, inevitabilities or evolutionary flukes? And what does that say about life on other planets? Jonathan Losos reveals what the latest breakthroughs in evolutionary biology can tell us about one of the greatest ongoing debates in science. He takes us around the globe to meet the researchers who are solving the deepest mysteries of life on Earth through their work in experimental evolutionary science. Losos himself is one of the leaders in this exciting new field, and he illustrates how experiments with guppies, fruit flies, bacteria, foxes, and field mice, along with his own work with anole lizards on Caribbean islands, are rewinding the tape of life to reveal just how rapid and predictable evolution can be. Improbable Destinies will change the way we think and talk about evolution. Losos's insights into natural selection and evolutionary change have far-reaching applications for protecting ecosystems, securing our food supply, and fighting off harmful viruses and bacteria. This compelling narrative offers a new understanding of ourselves and our role in the natural world and the cosmos.

Gene Regulatory Mechanisms in Development and Evolution: Insights from Echinoderms

Gene Regulatory Mechanisms in Development and Evolution: Insights from Echinoderms
Author:
Publisher: Academic Press
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2022-02-10
Genre: Science
ISBN: 012817188X

Sea urchins and other echinoderms, which have been studied intensively by developmental biologists for more than a century, are currently among the most prominent models for elucidating the genomic regulatory processes that control embryogenesis and the evolution of those processes. This volume contains reviews from the world's leading researchers who are using echinoderms to address these questions. Chapters focus on gene regulatory networks that drive the differentiation and morphogenesis of major embryonic tissues such as the skeleton, muscle, nervous system, immune system, pigment cells, and germ line, and on evolutionary insights from comparative studies of these networks across echinoderms and other taxa. Other chapters comprehensively review the architecture and evolution of the cell signaling pathways that establish the early embryonic axes and on recent evolutionary changes in gene networks that have led to dramatic changes in the life history modes of echinoderms. This volume provides a comprehensive, current picture of exciting research at the interface between developmental genomics and evolution from one of the research communities leading this work. - Contributions from leading investigators who use echinoderms as model organisms - Up-to-date reviews of developmental gene regulatory networks - Current work at the interface between developmental genomics and evolution

Evolution Evolving

Evolution Evolving
Author: Kevin N. Lala
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 440
Release: 2024-09-24
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0691262403

A new account of the central role developmental processes play in evolution A new scientific view of evolution is emerging—one that challenges and expands our understanding of how evolution works. Recent research demonstrates that organisms differ greatly in how effective they are at evolving. Whether and how each organism adapts and diversifies depends critically on the mechanistic details of how that organism operates—its development, physiology, and behavior. That is because the evolutionary process itself has evolved over time, and continues to evolve. The scientific understanding of evolution is evolving too, with groundbreaking new ways of explaining evolutionary change. In this book, a group of leading biologists draw on the latest findings in evolutionary genetics and evo-devo, as well as novel insights from studies of epigenetics, symbiosis, and inheritance, to examine the central role that developmental processes play in evolution. Written in an accessible style, and illustrated with fascinating examples of natural history, the book presents recent scientific discoveries that expand evolutionary biology beyond the classical view of gene transmission guided by natural selection. Without undermining the central importance of natural selection and other Darwinian foundations, new developmental insights indicate that all organisms possess their own characteristic sets of evolutionary mechanisms. The authors argue that a consideration of developmental phenomena is needed for evolutionary biologists to generate better explanations for adaptation and biodiversity. This book provides a new vision of adaptive evolution.

Some Assembly Required

Some Assembly Required
Author: Neil Shubin
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2020-03-17
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1101871342

An exciting and accessible new view of the evolution of human and animal life on Earth. From the author of national bestseller, Your Inner Fish, this extraordinary journey of discovery spans centuries, as explorers and scientists seek to understand the origins of life's immense diversity. “Fossils, DNA, scientists with a penchant for suits of armor—what’s not to love?”—BBC Wildlife Magazine Over billions of years, ancient fish evolved to walk on land, reptiles transformed into birds that fly, and apelike primates evolved into humans that walk on two legs, talk, and write. For more than a century, paleontologists have traveled the globe to find fossils that show how such changes have happened. We have now arrived at a remarkable moment—prehistoric fossils coupled with new DNA technology have given us the tools to answer some of the basic questions of our existence: How do big changes in evolution happen? Is our presence on Earth the product of mere chance? This new science reveals a multibillion-year evolutionary history filled with twists and turns, trial and error, accident and invention. In Some Assembly Required, Neil Shubin takes readers on a journey of discovery spanning centuries, as explorers and scientists seek to understand the origins of life's immense diversity.