Extended evolutionary synthesis

The extended evolutionary synthesis is a set of extensions of the earlier modern synthesis of evolutionary biology that took place between 1918 and 1942. The extended evolutionary synthesis was called for in the 1950s by C. H. Waddington, argued for on the basis of punctuated equilibrium by Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge in the 1980s, and relaunched in 2007 by Massimo Pigliucci.

The extended evolutionary synthesis revisits the relative importance of different factors at play, examining several assumptions of the earlier synthesis, and augmenting it with additional causative factors.[1][2] It includes multilevel selection, transgenerational epigenetic inheritance, niche construction, and evolvability.[3][4][5]

Not all biologists have agreed on the need for, or the scope of, an extended synthesis. Many have collaborated on a different synthesis in evolutionary developmental biology, which integrates embryology with molecular genetics and evolution to understand how natural selection operated on developmental processes and deep homologies between organisms at the level of highly conserved genes.

The preceding "modern synthesis"

The modern synthesis was the widely accepted early 20th-century synthesis reconciling Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection and Gregor Mendel's theory of genetics in a joint mathematical framework. It established evolution as biology's central paradigm. The 19th century ideas of natural selection by Darwin and Mendelian genetics were united by Ronald Fisher, one of the three founders of population genetics, along with J. B. S. Haldane and Sewall Wright, between 1918 and 1932.[6][7][8][9] Julian Huxley used the phrase "modern synthesis" in his admired 1942 book, Evolution: The Modern Synthesis.[10][11][12]

Early history

During the 1950s, the English biologist C. H. Waddington called for an extended synthesis based from his research on epigenetics and genetic assimilation.[13][14][15] An extended synthesis was also proposed by the Austrian zoologist Rupert Riedl, with the study of evolvability.[16] In 1978, Michael J. D. White wrote about an extension of the modern synthesis based on new research from speciation.[17]

1980s: punctuated equilibrium

In the 1980s, the American palaeontologists Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge argued for an extended synthesis. This was based on their idea of punctuated equilibrium, the role of species selection shaping large scale evolutionary patterns and natural selection working on multiple levels extending from genes to species.[18][19][20][21] The ethologist John Endler wrote a paper in 1988 discussing processes of evolution that he felt had been neglected.[22]

A different synthesis: evolutionary developmental biology

Researchers in the field of evolutionary developmental biology created a different extended synthesis. They argued that the modern and extended syntheses were mostly centered on genes and ignored the development of morphology. They collaborated on a different synthesis in evolutionary developmental biology, which integrates embryology with molecular genetics and evolution to understand how natural selection operated on developmental processes and deep homologies between organisms at the level of highly conserved genes.[23][24][25][26][27]

Recent history

Massimo Pigliucci, a leading proponent of the extended evolutionary synthesis in its 2007 form

The idea of an extended synthesis was relaunched in 2007 by Massimo Pigliucci,[28][29] with a book in 2010 titled Evolution: The Extended Synthesis, which has served as a launching point for work on the extended synthesis.[30] This includes:

Other processes such as evolvability, phenotypic plasticity, reticulate evolution, sex evolution[37] and symbiogenesis are said by proponents to have been excluded or missed from the modern synthesis.[38][39] The goal of Piglucci's extended synthesis is to take evolution beyond the gene-centered approach of population genetics to consider more organism- and ecology-centered approaches. Many of these causes are currently considered secondary in evolutionary causation, and proponents of the extended synthesis want them to be considered first-class evolutionary causes.[40] The biologist Eugene Koonin wrote in 2009 that "the new developments in evolutionary biology by no account should be viewed as refutation of Darwin. On the contrary, they are widening the trails that Darwin blazed 150 years ago and reveal the extraordinary fertility of his thinking."[41]

Predictions

Pigliucci and colleagues make the following predictions:

  1. change in phenotype can precede change in genotype
  2. changes in phenotype are predominantly positive, rather than neutral (see: neutral theory of molecular evolution)
  3. changes in phenotype are induced in many organisms, rather than one organism
  4. revolutionary change in phenotype can occur through mutation or facilitated variation
  5. "repeated evolution in isolated populations may be due to convergent selection and/or developmental bias"
  6. adaptation occur due to natural selection, environmental induction, non-genetic inheritance, learning and cultural transmission (see: Baldwin effect, meme, transgenerational epigenetic inheritance, ecological inheritance, non-Mendelian inheritance)
  7. rapid evolution can result from the simultaneous induction and natural selection
  8. biodiversity can be affected by features of developmental systems (evolvability, constraints)
  9. heritable variation is directed towards variants that are adaptive and integrated with phenotype
  10. "niche construction will be systematically biased towards environmental changes that are well suited to the constructor's phenotype, or that of its descendants, and enhance the constructor's, or its descendant's, fitness"[42]
  11. multilevel selection[4]
  12. kin selection[3]

Status

Biologists disagree on the need for an extended synthesis. Opponents contend that the modern synthesis is able to fully account for the newer observations, while proponents think that the conceptions of evolution at the core of the modern synthesis are too narrow.[43] Proponents argue that even when the modern synthesis allows for the ideas in the extended synthesis, using the modern synthesis affects the way that biologists think about evolution. For example, Denis Noble says that using terms and categories of the modern synthesis distort the picture of biology that modern experimentation has discovered.[44] Proponents therefore claim that the extended synthesis is necessary to help expand the conceptions and framework of how evolution is considered throughout the biological disciplines.[2]

The principal focus of dispute with Neo-Darwinists is over the source of variation on which Natural Selection can operate. Supporters of the Extended Synthesis deny that these arise from "random copying errors" in DNA replication. In fact they often assert that development of an improved organism by such a mechanism - even occasionally - would violate Shannon's principles of Information Theory.[45][46][47]

References

  1. ↑ Wade, Michael J (2011). "The Neo-Modern Synthesis: The Confluence of New Data and Explanatory Concepts". BioScience. 61: 407–408. doi:10.1525/bio.2011.61.5.10.
  2. 1 2 John Odling-Smee et al. "The extended evolutionary synthesis: its structure, assumptions and predictions". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, August 2015.
  3. 1 2 Danchin, É; Charmantier, A; Champagne, FA; Mesoudi, A; Pujol, B; Blanchet, S (2011). "Beyond DNA: integrating inclusive inheritance into an extended theory of evolution". Nature Reviews Genetics. 12: 475–486. PMID 21681209. doi:10.1038/nrg3028.
  4. 1 2 Pigliucci, Massimo; Finkelman, Leonard (2014). "The Extended (Evolutionary) Synthesis Debate: Where Science Meets Philosophy". BioScience. 64: 511–516. doi:10.1093/biosci/biu062.
  5. 1 2 Laubichler, Manfred D; Renn, Jürgen (2015). "Extended evolution: A Conceptual Framework for Integrating Regulatory Networks and Niche Construction". Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution. 324: 565–577. doi:10.1002/jez.b.22631.
  6. ↑ National Academy of Sciences (1999). Science and Creationism: A View from the National Academy of Sciences (2nd ed.). Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. p. 28. ISBN 0-309-06406-6. LCCN 99006259. OCLC 43803228. The scientific consensus around evolution is overwhelming.
  7. ↑ Bock, Walter J. (July 1981). "Reviewed Work: The Evolutionary Synthesis. Perspectives on the Unification of Biology". The Auk. McLean, VA: American Ornithologists' Union. 98 (3): 644–646. ISSN 0004-8038. JSTOR 4086148.
  8. ↑ Fisher, Ronald A. (January 1919). "XV.—The Correlation between Relatives on the Supposition of Mendelian Inheritance". Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. London: Robert Grant & Son; Williams & Norgate. 52 (2): 399–433. ISSN 0080-4568. OCLC 4981124. doi:10.1017/S0080456800012163. "Paper read by J. Arthur Thomson on July 8, 1918 to the Royal Society of Edinburgh."
  9. ↑ Fisher, R. A. (1999) [Originally published 1930; Oxford, UK: The Clarendon Press]. The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection. Edited with a foreword and notes by J. H. Bennett (A complete variorum ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-850440-3. LCCN 00702764. OCLC 45308589.
  10. ↑ Hubbs, C.L. (1943). "Evolution the new synthesis". American Naturalist. 77: 365–68. doi:10.1086/281134.
  11. ↑ Kimball, R.F. (1943). "The great biological generalization". Quarterly Review of Biology. 18: 364–67. doi:10.1086/394682.
  12. ↑ Karl P. Schmidt, Evolution the Modern Synthesis by Julian Huxley, Copeia, Vol. 1943, No. 4 (Dec. 31, 1943), pp. 262-263
  13. ↑ Wilkins, Adam S (2008). "Waddington's Unfinished Critique of Neo-Darwinian Genetics: Then and Now". Biological Theory. 3 (3): 224–232. doi:10.1162/biot.2008.3.3.224.
  14. ↑ Pigliucci, Massimo; et al. (2006). "Phenotypic plasticity and evolution by genetic assimilation". Journal of Experimental Biology. 209: 2362–2367. doi:10.1242/jeb.02070.
  15. ↑ Huang S. (2011). The molecular and mathematical basis of Waddington’s epigenetic landscape: A framework for post-Darwinian biology? BioEssays 34: 149-157.
  16. ↑ Wagner, Günter P; Laubichler; Manfred D. (2004). "Rupert Riedl and the Re-Synthesis of Evolutionary and Developmental Biology: Body Plans and Evolvability". Journal of Experimental Zoology (Mol Dev Evol) 302B: 92-102.
  17. ↑ Parnell, Dennis R. (1978). Heralding a New Synthesis Modes of Speciation by M. J. D. White. Systematic Botany. Vol. 3, No. 1. p. 126.
  18. ↑ Gould, Stephen Jay. (1980). Is a New and General Theory of Evolution Emerging? Paleobiology. Vol. 6, No. 1. pp. 119-130.
  19. ↑ Gould, Stephen Jay (1982). "Darwinism and the Expansion of Evolutionary Theory". Science. 216 (4544): 380–387. doi:10.1126/science.7041256.
  20. ↑ "A More Modern Synthesis". American Scientist.
  21. ↑ Vermeij, Geerat J (1987). "Unfinished Synthesis: Biological Hierarchies and Modern Evolutionary Thought by Niles Eldredge". The Quarterly Review of Biology. 62 (1): 79–80. doi:10.1086/415312.
  22. ↑ Endler, John A; McLellan, Tracy. (1988). The Processes of Evolution: Toward a Newer Synthesis. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics. Vol. 19, pp. 395-421. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.es.19.110188.002143 JSTOR: 2097160
  23. ↑ Bateson, P (2005). "The Return of the Whole Organism". Journal of Biosciences. 30: 31–39. PMID 15824439. doi:10.1007/bf02705148.
  24. ↑ Huneman, Philippe (2010). "Assessing the Prospects for a Return of Organisms in Evolutionary Biology". History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences. 32: 341–372.
  25. ↑ Gilbert, S.F.; Opitz, G.; Raff, R. (1996). "Resynthesizing Evolutionary and Developmental Biology". Development and Evolution. 173: 357–372. PMID 8605997. doi:10.1006/dbio.1996.0032.
  26. ↑ Müller, G. B. (2007). "Evo-devo: Extending the evolutionary synthesis". Nature Reviews Genetics. 8: 943–949. PMID 17984972. doi:10.1038/nrg2219.
  27. ↑ "The Origins of Form". Natural History.
  28. ↑ Pigliucci, Massimo (2007). "Do We Need an Extended Evolutionary Synthesis?". Evolution. 61 (12): 2743–2749. PMID 17924956. doi:10.1111/j.1558-5646.2007.00246.x.
  29. ↑ Grant, Bob (1 January 2010). "Should Evolutionary Theory Evolve". The Scientist.
  30. 1 2 3 Pigliucci (26 March 2010). Evolution - the Extended Synthesis. The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0262513678.
  31. ↑ Meaden, Rhiannon (5 August 2015). "Redefining Evolutionary Biology". The Royal Society Publishing Blog.
  32. ↑ Indiana University (7 August 2015). "Expanding the Theory of Evolution". Lab Manager.
  33. ↑ Bonduriansky, R; Day, T (2009). "Nongenetic inheritance and its evolutionary implications" (PDF). Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics. 40: 103–125. doi:10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.39.110707.173441.
  34. ↑ Schrey; et al. (15 December 2011). "The Role of Epigenetic in Evolution: the Extended Synthesis". Genetics Research International. 2012: 286164. PMC 3335599 Freely accessible. PMID 22567381. doi:10.1155/2012/286164.
  35. ↑ Stotz, Karola (20 August 2014). "Extended evolutionary psychology: the importance of transgenerational developmental plasticity". Frontiers in Psychology. 5: 908. PMC 4138557 Freely accessible. PMID 25191292. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00908.
  36. ↑ Laland; et al. (5 August 2015). "The extended evolutionary synthesis: its structure, assumptions and predictions". The Royal Society Publishing Proceedings B. 282 (1813): 20151019. PMC 4632619 Freely accessible. PMID 26246559. doi:10.1098/rspb.2015.1019.
  37. ↑ Lodé, Th (2011). "Sex is not a solution for reproduction, the libertine bubble theory". BioEssays. 33: 419–422. PMID 21472739. doi:10.1002/bies.201000125.
  38. ↑ Perez, JUlio E; Alfonsi, Carmen; Munoz, Carlos (2010). "Towards a New Evolutionary Theory" (PDF). Interciencia. 35: 862–868.
  39. ↑ Gontier, Nathalie. (2015). Reticulate Evolution Everywhere. In Reticulate Evolution: Symbiogenesis, Lateral Gene Transfer, Hybridization and Infectious Heredity. Springer. pp. 1-40. ISBN 978-3-319-16344-4
  40. ↑ "Expanding Theory of Evolution". PhysOrg. 5 August 2015.
  41. ↑ Koonin, Eugene (2009). "Towards a postmodern synthesis of evolutionary biology". Cell Cycle. 8: 799–800. PMC 3410441 Freely accessible. PMID 19242109. doi:10.4161/cc.8.6.8187.
  42. ↑ Laland, KN; Uller, T; Feldman, MW; Sterelny, K; Müller, GB; Moczek, A; Jablonka, E; Odling-Smee, J (Aug 2015). "The extended evolutionary synthesis: its structure, assumptions and predictions.". Proc Biol Sci. 282: 20151019. PMC 4632619 Freely accessible. PMID 26246559. doi:10.1098/rspb.2015.1019.
  43. ↑ Laland, Kevin, Tobias Uller, Marc Feldman, Kim Sterelny, Gerd B. Müller, Armin Moczek, Eva Jablonka, John Odling-Smee, Gregory A. Wray, Hopi E. Hoekstra, Douglas J. Futuyma, Richard E. Lenski, Trudy F. C. Mackay, Dolph Schluter & Joan E. Strassmann; et al. (8 October 2014). "Does Evolutionary Theory Need a Rethink?". Nature. 514 (7521): 161–164. Bibcode:2014Natur.514..161L. PMID 25297418. doi:10.1038/514161a.
  44. ↑ Noble, Denis (1 January 2015). "Evolution Beyond Neo-Darwinism: A New Conceptual Framework". The Journal of Experimental Biology. 218 (Pt 1): 7–13. PMID 25568446. doi:10.1242/jeb.106310.
  45. ↑ Information Theory, Evolution and the Origin of Life, H. P. Yockey, Cambridge UP
  46. ↑ "Origins of Life and Shannon's Theory of Communication", H. P. Yockey, Computers and Chemistry,24 (2000)
  47. ↑ In the Beginning was Information, Werner Gitt

Further reading

Defend the extended synthesis

Criticism of the extended synthesis

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.