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Evolution in Four Dimensions: Genetic, Epigenetic, Behavioral, and Symbolic Variation in the History of Life
Abstract
Ideas about heredity and evolution are undergoing a revolutionary change. New findings in molecular biology challenge the gene-centered version of Darwinian theory according to which adaptation occurs only through natural selection of chance DNA variations. In Evolution in Four Dimensions, Eva Jablonka and Marion Lamb argue that there is more to heredity than genes. They trace four “dimensions” in evolution—four inheritance systems that play a role in evolution: Genetic, epigenetic (or non-DNA cellular transmission of traits), behavioral, and symbolic (transmission through language and other forms of symbolic communication). These systems, they argue, can all provide variations on which natural selection can act. Evolution in Four Dimensions offers a richer, more complex view of evolution than the gene-based, one-dimensional view held by many today. The new synthesis advanced by Jablonka and Lamb makes clear that induced and acquired changes also play a role in evolution. After discussing each of the four inheritance systems in detail, Jablonka and Lamb “put Humpty Dumpty together again” by showing how all of these systems interact. They consider how each may have originated and guided evolutionary history and they discuss the social and philosophical implications of the four-dimensional view of evolution. Each chapter ends with a dialogue in which the authors engage the contrarieties of the fictional (and skeptical) “I.M.,” or Ifcha Mistabra—Aramaic for “the opposite conjecture”—refining their arguments against I.M.’s vigorous counterarguments. The lucid and accessible text is accompanied by artist–physician Anna Zeligowski’s lively drawings, which humorously and effectively illustrate the authors’ points. © 2014 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. All rights reserved.
... The title of the proceedings of this conference was clearly inspired by Huxley's aforementioned 1942 book: Evolution: The Extended Synthesis. However, long before this birth of the formalized EES, biologists were already extending, modifying and altering SET in the way, envisaged by the advocates of the EES (e.g., Schlichting and Pigliucci 1998;Carroll 2000;Jablonka and Lamb 2005) or arguing for a (radically) new evolutionary theory (e.g., Pigliucci 2003;West-Eberhard 2003;Gilbert 2006). ...
... Consequently, I believe that the mainstream EES might indeed be interpreted as a Kuhnian reformulation of SET. Inspired by empirical discoveries and innovative theoretical studies, it places more explanatory emphasis on organismal and, more in general, non-genetic phenomena, even though it still considers genes to be important explanantia of evolutionary phenomena (see, e.g., Jablonka and Lamb 2005). As Craig (2010) argues, this reformulation should also encompass a considerable remodeling of the population genetics foundation of SET: that is the reason why he claims that the term "extended" is a misnomer (see also Laland et al. 2015, p. 9). ...
... After Godfrey-Smith (2007) queriedJablonka's and Lamb's (2005) claim that evolutionary biology is undergoing a revolution, the latter(Jablonka and Lamb 2007, p. 453) stated that "evolutionary theory is not undergoing a Kuhnian revolution" even though "the incorporation of new data and ideas about hereditary variation, and about the role of development in generating it, is leading to a version of Darwinism that is very different from the gene-centered one that dominated evolutionary thinking in the second half of the twentieth century" (ibid.).Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved. ...
In recent years, some scholars have explicitly questioned the desirability or utility of applying the classical and “old-fashioned” theories of scientific change by the likes of Karl Popper and Thomas S. Kuhn to the question of the precise nature and significance of the extended evolutionary synthesis (EES). Supposedly, these twentieth-century philosophers are completely irrelevant for a better understanding of this new theoretical framework for the study of evolution. Here, it will be argued that the EES can be fruitfully interpreted in terms of, as yet, insufficiently considered or even overlooked elements from Kuhn’s theory. First, in his original, historical philosophy of science, Kuhn not only distinguished between small and big scientific revolutions, he also pointed out that paradigms can be extended and reformulated. In contrast with what its name suggests, the mainstream EES can be interpreted as a Kuhnian reformulation of modern evolutionary theory. Second, it has, as yet, also been overlooked that the EES can be interpreted in terms of Kuhn’s later, tentative evolutionary philosophy of science. With the EES, an old dichotomy in evolutionary biology is maybe being formalized and institutionalized.
... If organisms influence their own development by altering the conditions they are exposed to, then the set of key resources necessary for an individual to build itself must include these conditions (Bonduriansky and Day 2018). If individual organisms are actively involved in creating the conditions for their own ontogeny, then development cannot simply be an irrelevant black-box unfolding of the phenotype prefigured in some omniscient genetic blueprint (Depew and Weber 1997;Oyama et al. 2003;Jablonka and Lamb 2005). And if development is not merely a black box, then biologists must look inside the mechanisms of inheritance. ...
... Heritability is at its core a developmental phenomenon, and can be thought of as the reconstruction of the parental phenotype, favored by selection, anew in each developing individual (Blumberg 2010). Traditionally, the factors that cause heritability are regarded as "intrinsic biotic factors," usually genes (Oyama et al. 2003;Jablonka and Lamb 2005). ...
... In the same way, genes are not autonomous causal agents, that is, they do not all by themselves direct development or cause anything at all to happen. Instead, they are crucial, but by no means sufficient, members of a system, of the set of resources involved in constructing a new individual (Jablonka and Lamb 2005;Buchanan et al. 2009;Lickliter and Harshaw 2010;Bonduriansky and Day 2018). Yet genes are almost universally considered biotic factors and thus more fundamental as compared to components such as water, ions, oxygen, photons, and the like. ...
The distinction between biotic variables, such as pollinators, pathogens, and competitors, and abiotic variables, such as temperature, pH, and humidity, is so basic to biology that it is routinely invoked in everything from painstaking ecological studies to basic textbooks. For all its pervasiveness, there are good reasons to renounce the biotic-abiotic distinction in daily biology. For one, the distinction is hard to make in practice because virtually all “abiotic” variables are profoundly affected by organisms. Even if it were possible, in most cases the distinction adds nothing and at worst makes communication more difficult. Best of all, overcoming the distinction leads to insights regarding niche construction, extended inheritance, and even redefinition of “evolution.”
... The Modern Synthesis's assumptions regarding the role of genes in heredity, development, and evolutionnamely that instructions for building organisms reside in their genes, that genes are the exclusive means by which these instructions are transmitted from one generation to the next, and that there is no meaningful feedback to the genes from either the environment or the organism's experienceshave been challenged in recent decades. These assumptions have been challenged by demonstrations of non-genetic regulation of gene expression and cellular function, as well as by demonstrations of the effects on genetic, neural, and hormonal activity of sensory and social experience (see Jablonka & Lamb, 2005;Gilbert & Epel, 2015). In many cases, these effects on the functioning of both DNA and other biological units have been found to be stably reproduced across generations (Jablonka & Lamb, 1995. ...
... In fact, Jablonka & Lamb (2005) identified four types of inheritance that they argued could be responsible for phenotypic variations able to be subjected to natural selection: genetic inheritance, epigenetic inheritance, behavioral inheritance, and symbol-based inheritance. In their 2005 book, these theorists considered the sort of "body-to-body" transfer of developmentally significant substancesas happens when a fetus moves through a birth canalto be a type of behavioral inheritance because this type of transmission often results from parental behavior (in this case, the mother pushing the fetus out of her body). ...
... Such transgenerational phenomena are not limited to insects; human beings also develop food preferences that are influenced by the chemicals they are exposed to early in development. Fetuses and infants encounter these chemicals in utero or in their mother's saliva or breast milk when they are exposed to molecules derived from the maternal diet (Mennella et al., 2001;Jablonka & Lamb, 2005. In this way, we inherit some of our food preferences from our mothers. ...
Currently, a central problem for theoretical biology is the integration of development with genetics and evolutionary theory. Through the late 20th century, biologists held that animals resemble their ancestors strictly because of the transgenerational transmission of DNA. This view effectively wrote development out of evolutionary biology. However, many molecular and developmental biologists now understand that phenotypes – anatomical, physiological, and behavioral traits – are not determined by genes (i.e., DNA segments) alone; instead, they emerge epigenetically from developmental processes involving co-acting genetic factors, environmental factors, molecular epigenetic factors, and other non-genetic factors within organisms’ bodies. This insight forces a rethinking of biological inheritance. Perspectives focusing on the dynamics of developmental systems offer a compelling alternative way to think about inheritance, providing a powerful substitute to the reductionistic framework that attributes phenotypic outcomes to genetic instructions set in advance of developmental processes. Rethinking genetics, epigenetics, and inheritance by focusing on the dynamics of developmental systems helps highlight the bidirectional effects of evolutionary and developmental processes on one another, yielding a more integrated understanding of development, inheritance, and evolution. Simultaneously, this approach encourages rejection of genetic determinism, a simplistic perspective that continues to appear in psychological writing, despite its biological implausibility.
... While evolutionary theorists have emphasized the importance of heredity and replication systems beyond DNA (Dawkins 1976;Jablonka and Lamb 2005;Richerson and Boyd 2005) there is, of course, a deep history of the application of evolutionary theory to culture. Herbert Spencer's application of Darwinian ideas to culture, as well as 20th century attempts to develop a science of culture viewed it as a 'superorganic' form of inheritance (Kroeber 1957), to which evolutionary mechanisms applied (White 1949) were inherently 'progressionist' (implying evolutionary progress and innate directionality). ...
... Just what constitutes such a system of inheritance is poorly resolved. In addition to genes, some have identified culture as a second system of inheritance (Richerson and Boyd 2005;Richerson et al. 2010), others have added epigenetics and divided culture into symbolic and behavioral components (Jablonka and Lamb 2005), or included ecological inheritance (when organisms inhabit an environment that has been modified by previous generations) on the basis of niche construction (Odling-Smee 2015;Odling-Smee et al. 2003). An implication of the existence of multiple inheritance systems relevant to evolution is that they may not be subject to the same transmission processes and rules, they may apply on different timescales, and their interaction may lead to novel evolutionary dynamics. ...
It has been argued that enhanced phenotypic plasticity and life-history variability, in addition to a greater adaptive dependence on social learning, behavioral flexibility, and niche construction, are characteristics of the hominin lineage that accommodated both environmental variation and the colonization of new environments. The extended evolutionary synthesis (EES) integrates these and other mechanisms of adaptability, incorporating development and intergenerational effects, inclusive inheritance, and niche construction. Over the past decade we have gained considerable resolution in our understanding of spatio-temporal variation in fossil hominin phenotypic variation, material culture and behavior, and a refined understanding of the intergenerational and developmental mechanisms driving phenotypic diversity within our species. This paper reviews evidence for phenotypic and behavioral diversity within the genus Homo to evaluate the hypothesis that our evolution was characterized by a shifting distribution of adaptation across different systems described by the EES. We define and apply a model that we term 'distributed' adaptation, where mechanisms of both plasticity and culture serve to accommodate environmental variability in ways that are more rapid than genetic adaptation, thus distributing selection across a range of adaptive systems. Adaptation that is distributed towards physiological and cultural mechanisms allows for more rapid adaptability in stochastic environments and buffers the genome against selective sweeps that generally involve a reduction in genetic diversity and potential future adaptability. Predictions of distributed adaptation throughout hominin evolution are proposed in relation to: (a) biology and morphology, (b) habitual behavior, and (c) feedback between behavioral change and biology. To evaluate these predictions in relation to (a) we consider evidence for shifts in phenotypic plasticity and morphological variation, including the emergence of body and brain size variation, limb proportions, skeletal robusticity, regional variation in plasticity and canalization within the body, and how these relate to environmental factors and dispersals. Predictions of behavioral change (b) are considered in light of the emergence of markedly increased spatial and environmental variation in archaeological assemblages in the late Middle and Late Pleistocene as indicators of local adaptability, cognition, and niche construction. Finally, we consider the relationships between dispersals, material culture, and morphological plasticity in response to cultural change in relation to (c). Current evidence suggests a mosaic pattern of the evolution of distributed adaptation and selection within our genus. In early Homo there is evidence of phenotypic diversification and increasing plasticity that precedes evidence of increased cognitive, behavioral, and cultural variation among Middle and Later Pleistocene Homo. This can be interpreted as representing a shift towards the distribution of adaptation, first onto mechanisms based on phenotypic plasticity, and later onto cognition, cultural buffering of environmental stress, and enhanced niche construction.
... Traditional evolutionary biology is enshrined in textbook versions of the Modern Synthesis, the extrapolation of population genetic theory from the 1930s-1950s that remains in place in much of the field. Some biologists regard some of the tenets of such 'standard' evolutionary theory to be unfaithful depictions of biological reality, such as the notion that phenotypes are encoded in the genome [135]. The latter view implies that development is simply a reading-out of a computer softwarelike blueprint; as a result, nothing of relevance to the evolutionary process can occur in development (externalistinternalist dichotomy). ...
... The latter view implies that development is simply a reading-out of a computer softwarelike blueprint; as a result, nothing of relevance to the evolutionary process can occur in development (externalistinternalist dichotomy). Evo-devo is an emphatic reaction to this position [111,135,136]. A vivacious group of researchers argue that the Modern Synthesis is so confining that it is worth recognizing a wider canon of processes. ...
Evo-devo is often thought of as being the study of which genes underlie which phenotypes. However, evo-devo is much more than this, especially in plant science. In leaf scars along stems, cell changes across wood growth rings, or flowers along inflorescences, plants trace a record of their own development. Plant morpho evo-devo provides data that genes could never furnish on themes such as heterochrony, the evolution of temporal phenotypes, modularity, and phenotype-first evolution. As plant science surges into increasingly -omic realms, it is essential to keep plant morpho evo-devo in full view as an honored member of the evo-devo canon, ensuring that plant scientists can, wherever they are, generate fundamental insights at the appropriate level of biological organization.
... Man adapts to the ecological niche, and his actions elicit reactions from the environment that modify his phenotype, turning that interaction into a sign that can be crucial in the DNA structure. The more radical, profound, and repetitive it is, the stronger the trace becomes, evolving into a physiological and intellectual history, but above all, a new categorical model for the interpretation of inter-relational space (Keverne and Curley 2008;Lester et al. 2011;Roth 2013;Nelson and Monteggia 2011;Crews 2011;Jablonka 2016;Jablonka and Lamb 2002;Dias et al. 2015;Masterpasqua 2009). The digital era is the new niche where humans reside, a computerized habitat capable of surpassing the concept of "virtual" as a non-specific space of entities, as previously proposed by Lévy (Lévy 1997). ...
... What we are today is surpassable. Anthropological evolution is inherent in human nature, and its biocentrism (Schelling 2012;2018;Sisto 2017) makes it an integral part of the environmental system, which determines its adaptation and epigenetic characteristics (Goldberg, Allis, and Bernstein 2007;Jablonka and Lamb 2014;Weinhold 2006). What we are today is the new phase of evolution, on which Pepperell has reflected (Pepperell 2003), leading humans to an interaction that does not aim to decline them but adapt them -if not now, then in the generation that will follow-to a life that no longer moves solely within analog meanings (by analogy, therefore) but within a network where every individual "Homo" is a semantic node with machines and AI, to which we provide -even unknowingly-data that improves our adaptation to the niche. ...
Computerization has created a digital ecological niche where humans live in a state of interconnection that modifies their Epigenetics. Within this hyper-datafied virtual space, the logged-in agent enhances their intellectual and rational abilities, giving rise to a new cognitive entity. Humans are evolving towards a new anthropological status that shifts the terms of the Digital History debate from History to the historian, compelling the latter to reflect on the positions of Fichte and Schelling regarding the mind-body-world relationship (ecological niche). This reflection leads to the possibility of overcoming the crisis of History imposed by presentism and the necessity of redefining the research methodology based on the new vision of the interconnection between the mind and the digital niche as an investigative tool.
... Eco-evolutionary models have helped establish reciprocal couplings between ecological processes, such as population growth, resource competition, trophic and other types of interaction networks and fluxes of matter and energy in modified landscapes, that occur at higher levels of ecosystems, and molecular structures and processes, such as DNA transcription to RNA, RNA translation into proteins, or gene mutation and expression, that occur at the lowest molecular level (Hendry, 2017). These models have highlighted the key role played by genetic variation (evolving both under genetic drift and natural selection) within a population at the community and ecosystem levels, as well as the role of higher levels of emerging ecological, physical, social and cultural phenomena on gene expression and selection in a feedback loop (Govaert et al., 2019;Jablonka & Lamb, 2005). ...
We suggest that biogeomorphology should challenge the traditional dichotomy between living and non‐living components of Earth surface systems. To achieve this, biogeomorphologists should gain a better understanding of eco‐evolutionary models and empirical findings developing at the interface between ecology and evolutionary biology. Eco‐evolutionary models explore feedback loops between genes, organisms and the physical or biological components outside the organism's body. This changes our understanding of how organisms interact with their environment and the functional and evolutionary significance of biologically induced landforms. In the niche construction framework, genes can be conceived as the foundational evolutionary units of selection and inheritance, and everything beyond of this unit can be considered as the ‘environment’ for gene expression, either packaged within or unpackaged outside the organism. Both the packaged biological and unpackaged environments can be influenced by genes and manufactured by organisms, respectively, in the form of phenotypes or niche constructions. We propose that biomineralized structures, such as bones, osteoderms, antlers and shells, which can be packaged at varying degrees within an organism, as well as external products of genes such as termite mounds, which are unpackaged at the periphery of the organism, form a gradient of variation in the relative dominance and functional integration of biotic and abiotic components in ecosystems. A more explicit consideration of the functional interrelationships between physical and biological components transcending their traditional boundaries should promote a re‐evaluation of the dichotomy between biological and geomorphological entities.
... Chromosome number is the karyotype feature most commonly used in cytotaxonomical analyses. Along with the continuous evolution of organisms, chromosomes have also changed as the unit of inheritance ( Jablonka et al., 2014). Numerous genetic studies are based on chromosomes, which are thought to be the primary carriers of genetic material in the nuclei of all eukaryotic cells (Bendich et al., 2004). ...
The study of chromosomes and their genetic makeup in fish species is the focus of the specialized field known as fish cytogenetics. Fish exhibit remarkable diversity in morphology, habitat, and behavior, which has evolved over millions of years and over 32,000 recognized species. As the carriers of genetic material, chromosomes have also undergone continuous evolution and are important in genetic research. Fish chromosome research is essential for a various motives like classification, evolutionary, taxonomic studies, genetic stock improvement, and understanding the relationships between various fish species. The chapter examines the various procedures and methods used in the fish chromosomes preparation and emphasizes use of chromosome number as a common karyotype feature for cytotaxonomical analysis. It talks about the challenges and technical difficulties involved in studying fish karyotypes because of their numerous chromosomes along with small chromosome sizes. The chapter also discusses how fish cytogenetics is used in fishery management and aquaculture breeding programmes, where karyotype research is important for chromosome manipulation techniques. The chapter concludes by emphasizing the significance of fish cytogenetics in characterizing species, studying evolution and 85 phylogeny, and providing valuable information for population genetic divergences and local adaptations. Overall, this chapter serves as a foundation for understanding the importance of fish cytogenetics and its role in advancing our knowledge of fish genetics, evolution, and taxonomy.
... I propose that we accept these as the basic dimensions of evolution. The only other, non-exclusive, contenders are the four dimensions considered by Jablonka & Lamb (2004) (genetics, epigenetics, behaviour and semiotics), which, to my mind, concern the continuous processes of evolution rather than its 'products' (diverse forms evolving, shifting and going extinct in space, over time), as addressed by Croizat. [I further suggest that Croizat's three dimensions are linked by the idea or concept of movement (cf. ...
This essay presents various reflections on living systems, what they are and how they evolve, prompted by editing Teleonomy in Living Systems (a special issue of the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society). Conclusions include the suggestion that the linked notions of teleonomy and agency represent fundamental properties of matter that become apparent only when organized in the way that we consider to be that of a living system. As such, they are factors that form part of the intrinsic 'a priori' of living systems, as they evolve in form through space and time. Biology, the science of life and living systems, needs to be 'biological' if it is to be anything at all. Understanding the role of teleonomy (internal, inherent goal-seeking) will always play a necessary part in this endeavour: teleonomy represents one of the fundamental properties of living systems.
... Waddington was a pioneer, and it occasions no surprise that genetics involves so much more now. However, the topic of variable gene expres- sion remains an important research area ( Jablonka and Lamb, 2006 ). In a recent research report from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, Owens found this useful, concise sentence: "Epigenetics refers to molecular processes that affect the way specific genes are expressed in a cell " ( Stem Cell Technology 2022 ). ...
Cite: Owens, J. B. (2023). “A Complex-Systems Landscape: Recognizing What Is Important in World History,” New Techno-Humanities 3 (1): 6-14. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techum.2023.05.003 In Special Issue [Open Access], “Digital Humanities and its Application to Global (Economic) History. Economic Development in the West and East,” edited by Manuel Pérez García. ABSTRACT: This article introduces a complex-systems metaphor/model for a world history greater than the sum of its parts. Due to the difficulty of thinking about any event within such a complicated context, we present a visualization to guide researchers’ recognition of the relationships that shape the historical process they study. To support thought, we repurpose a pair of linked visualizations that model gene expression in the morphogenesis of tissues and organs from a fertilized egg. The visual metaphor presents the shaping factors in two ways. First, the historical process encounters, as it moves through the complex-systems landscape, a series of elevations and depressions, which can be identified with significant relations. Second, from below, the metaphor permits the identification of these perturbations, the hills and valleys, with networks connecting the landscape's undulations to developments in specific places and larger geographic areas. These networks also serve to represent the way the complex human system couples with the complex natural systems relevant to the historical process in question. Moreover, the metaphor demands the recognition of hierarchies of instability, on which historians must focus to understand when a level of instability is reduced through some localized development, and when the instability level in places most relevant to the overall human system become so unstable that the system enters a period of phase transition to a new historical system and period. Employing the metaphor in this manner allows historians to defend the importance of their own research by tying it to world historical processes.
Key Words: World history, complex systems, self-organization, emergence, social-cultural evolution, cooperation
... (3) Genetic primacy: "the gene is the unit of heredity, the ontogenetic prime mover, and the primary supplier and organizer of material resources for development, such that the phenotype is the secondary unfolding of what is largely determined by the genes" (Robert 2004: 39). However, according to Alan Love (2008) and others (Jablonka and Lamb 2005;Keller 2002;Moss 2003;Oyama et al. 2001;Sarkar 2000) these core assumptions are at the very least inaccurate (if not patently false) and end up obscuring the contemporary understanding and explaining of ontogeny. ...
Despite the undeniable epistemic progress of developmental biology from the second half of the twentieth century to the present day, there still is widespread disagreement on defining the biological term of ‘development’. This scientific field epistemologically is neither unsuccessful nor immature, thus the persistent lack of agreement on its most central concept raises some important questions: is there any need for an explicit definition of biological development, and if so, what content should the definition have? My central thesis is twofold. First, that current definitions of biological development are conceptually or empirically inadequate. Second, that an explicit definition of biological development is very much needed (a) for the practical purposes of science textbooks, but more importantly is needed (b) epistemically for exposing or overcoming problematic assumptions and for partially guiding scientific research by coding the appropriate assumptions. To support this thesis, initially I will show the deficiencies of the dominant definitions of biological development; and subsequently I will provide two arguments: an Argument from Practical Purposes and an Argument from Epistemic Purposes. Finally, for accommodating practical and epistemic purposes and as a response to the inadequacy of the available definitions of development, I will propose and defend an operational definition of biological development which is aimed to be broader than the received ones, while being more precise and fruitful to conduct empirical research.
... Básicamente, que tanto los aspectos relativos a la filogenia como los de la ontogenia son relevantes para la interpretación de la evidencia respecto de la adaptación del ser humano a distintos dominios de la vida (Dougher y Hamilton, 2018, p. 20-21). Se han propuesto cuatro sistemas de herencia por selección que permiten la explicación multidimensional de las adaptaciones de ser humano: Genética, epigenética, conductual y simbólica ( Jablonka y Lamb, 2014). De correspondencia con dicho plan-teamiento multidimensional, la perspectiva contextual resalta, para la adaptación conductual, la noción de que el contexto incluye tanto a la historia del organismo como a las circunstancias actuales y a las consecuencias (vigentes y potenciales) del hacer, en este sentido contexto y comportamiento son inseparables y dan como resultado la adaptación. ...
Resumen Este trabajo se enfoca en las narrativas de liderazgo y su relación con el cambio organizacional. Dos posiciones teóricas son consideradas: La evolucionista y la conductual. Después de presentar ambas, y de describir sus respectivas ideas sobre el liderazgo, se desarrolla una pro-puesta que realza la noción de narrativa como un fenómeno conduc-tual y al hacerlo reinterpreta los marcos cognitivos de liderazgo de la perspectiva evolucionista y los delimita como componentes verbales funcionales del Modelo de Ingeniería en Sistemas Conductuales. Un caso específico reconstruido de una experiencia profesional del autor es tratado para mostrar que tal entendimiento de las narrativas de lide-razgo puede reducir posibles resistencias al diseño e implementación de un programa de cambio organizacional. Palabras clave: Liderazgo, narrativas, cambio organizacional 1. Autor de correspondencia: Isaac Camacho correo electrónico: isaac_camacho@hotmail. com
... Over the past decades, a growing body of research has shown that sources of information other than genetics are inherited across generations [1][2][3][4]. These non-genetic inherited sources of information are transmitted across generations via a physical transmission support, as is the case for epigenetic marks [5], microbiota [6] and thought learning mechanisms (behavioral/cultural inheritance [7,8]). As opposed to DNA, non-genetic information sources ...
Background
Evolutionary studies have reported that non-genetic information can be inherited across generations (epigenetic marks, microbiota, cultural inheritance). Non-genetic information is considered to be a key element to explain the adaptation of wild species to environmental constraints because it lies at the root of the transgenerational transmission of environmental effects. The “transmissibility model” was proposed several years ago to better predict the transmissible potential of each animal by taking these diverse sources of inheritance into account in a global transmissible potential. We propose to improve this model to account for the influence of the environment on the global transmissible potential as well. This extension of the transmissibility model is the “transmissibility model with environment” that considers a covariance between transmissibility samplings of animals sharing the same environment. The null hypothesis of “no transmitted environmental effect” can be tested by comparing the two models using a likelihood ratio test (LRT).
Results
We performed simulations that mimicked an experimental design consisting of two lines of animals with one exposed to a particular environment at a given generation. This enabled us to evaluate the performances of the transmissibility model with environment so as to detect and quantify transgenerational transmitted environmental effects. The power and the realized type I error of the LRT were compared to those of a T-test comparing the phenotype of the two lines, three generations after the environmental exposure for different sets of parameters. The power of the LRT ranged from 45 to 94%, whereas that of the T-test was always lower than 26%. In addition, the realized type I error of the T-test was 15% and that of the LRT was 5%, as expected. Variances, the covariance between transmissibility samplings, and path coefficients of transmission estimated with the transmissibility model with environment were close to their true values for all sets of parameters.
Conclusions
The transmissibility model with environment is effective in modeling vertical transmission of environmental effects.
... But more needs to be done (e.g. Wikipedia, 'Central dogma of molecular biology'; Danchin et al., 2011;Laland et al., 2014;Pigliucci & Müller 2010;Pookottil, 2013;Stoltfus & Cable, 2014;Shapiro, 2016Shapiro, , 2021Barton, 2022;Gontier, 2015Gontier, , 2017Jablonka & Lamb, 2014, 2020Noble, 2013Noble, , 2017Smith et al., 2018;Villarreal & Witzany, 2019;Dawkins & Noble, 2023). According to Shapiro (2021), 'a third way' of thinking on evolution is necessary. ...
It should be the ultimate goal of any theory of evolution to delineate the contours of an integrative system to answer the question: How does life (in all its complexity) evolve (which can be called mega‐evolution)? But how to plausibly define ‘life’? My answer (1994–2023) is: ‘life’ sounds like a noun, but denotes an activity, and thus is a verb. Life ( L ) denotes nothing else than the total sum (∑) of all acts of communication (transfer of information) ( C ) executed by any type of senders–receivers at all their levels (up to at least 15) of compartmental organization: L = ∑ C . The ‘communicating compartment’ is better suited to serve as the universal unit of structure, function and evolution than the cell, the smallest such unit. By paying as much importance to communication activity as to the Central Dogma of molecular biology, a wealth of new insights unfold. The major ones are as follows. (1) Living compartments have not only a genetic memory (DNA), but also a still enigmatic cognitive and an electrical memory system (and thus a triple memory system). (2) Complex compartments can have up to three types of progeny: genetic descendants/children, pupils/learners and electricians. (3) Of particular importance to adaptation, any act of communication is a problem‐solving act because all messages need to be decoded. Hence through problem‐solving that precedes selection, life itself is the driving force of its own evolution (a very clever but counterintuitive and unexpected logical deduction). Perhaps, this is the ‘vital force’ philosopher and Nobel laureate (in 1927) Henri Bergson searched for but did not find. image
... They argue that genetic, epigenetic, behavioral, and symbolic forms of variation all play a crucial role in shaping the course of evolution. They also examine the complex interplay between these forms of variation, showing how they interact to produce the diversity and complexity of living systems [20]. Their work provides a comprehensive and integrated view of the nature of evolutionary dynamics, highlighting the importance of a multidimensional approach to understanding biological systems. ...
... https: //doi.org/10.16888/interd.2023.40.2.1 inspirado esfuerzos integrativos en el estudio del comportamiento animal. (2) La aproximación de E. Jablonka y M. Lamb (2006) que propone cuatro dimensiones evolutivas que proveen variación conductual sobre las que la selección natural puede actuar (genética, epigenética, conductual y simbólica). (3) La propuesta de H. Plotkin (2010) de niveles de selección y control jerárquico que integra las ciencias sociales a las ciencias de la vida. ...
... The environmental features to be modified are manifold: material objects, arrangements, events, other organisms, epistemic systems, cultural structures, social practices, norms, or conventions (Jablonka & Lamb, 2005;Odling-Smee et al., 2003). Niche construction plays a crucial role in addressing a variety of challenges related to survival and reproduction, such as foraging, mating, breeding, sheltering, or protection from predators by modifying the material environment (e.g., by building dams or using tools) and/or interacting with other organisms (e.g., cross-species synergies or pack hunting). ...
Niche construction denotes the alteration, destruction, or creation of environmental features through the activities of an organism, modifying the relation between organism and environment. The concept of niche construction found application in various fields of research: evolutionary biology, enculturation, ontogenetic development, and local organism-environment coordination. This is because it provides a useful tool emphasizing different aspects of the dynamic interplay between organisms and their actively constructed environment. Traditionally, niche construction is considered a positive mechanism in the complementarity of organism and environment. In contrast, this paper sheds light on the dark side of niche construction, that is, the different manners in which organisms may modify environmental features that are in some way or another harmful to them. First, the paper introduces a paradigmatic distinction of four kinds of niche construction as commonly addressed in recent literature, using more or less extended spatio-temporal scales as the distinguishing feature. Second, the paper elaborates on the concept of negative niche construction, providing normative criteria of (mal)adaptation that are suitable for the evaluation of environmental alterations, given the chosen spatio-temporal scale. Of particular interest are inter-scale conflicts: those cases of environmental constructions which appear adaptive concerning one spatio-temporal scale but maladaptive concerning another. Third, the paper distinguishes the concept of niche construction as a valuable instrument to better understand central aspects of modern medicine and the entangled contribution of evolutionary, socio-cultural, personal, and situational aspects to different health issues, using chronic pain as an illustrative case study.
... There is also the burgeoning evidence that the genome is in fact a "two-way read-write system," as the biologist James Shapiro (2011Shapiro ( , 2013Shapiro ( , 2022aShapiro ( , 2022b characterizes it. The extensive and rapidly increasing evidence of epige ne tic inheritance (changes in the phenotype that are transmitted to the germ plasm in the next generation) also falsifies the one-way, gene-centered theory (see also Jablonka, 2013;Jablonka & Raz, 2009;Jablonka & Lamb, 2014;Noble, 2012Noble, , 2013Noble, , 2015Noble, , 2016Noble, , 2018Walsh, 2015;Huneman & Walsh, 2017). ...
A unique exploration of teleonomy—also known as “evolved purposiveness”—as a major influence in evolution by a broad range of specialists in biology and the philosophy of science.
The evolved purposiveness of living systems, termed “teleonomy” by chronobiologist Colin Pittendrigh, has been both a major outcome and causal factor in the history of life on Earth. Many theorists have appreciated this over the years, going back to Lamarck and even Darwin in the nineteenth century. In the mid-twentieth century, however, the complex, dynamic process of evolution was simplified into the one-way, bottom-up, single gene-centered paradigm widely known as the modern synthesis. In Evolution “On Purpose,” edited by Peter A. Corning, Stuart A. Kauffman, Denis Noble, James A. Shapiro, Richard I. Vane-Wright, and Addy Pross, some twenty theorists attempt to modify this reductive approach by exploring in depth the different ways in which living systems have themselves shaped the course of evolution.
Evolution “On Purpose” puts forward a more inclusive theoretical synthesis that goes far beyond the underlying principles and assumptions of the modern synthesis to accommodate work since the 1950s in molecular genetics, developmental biology, epigenetic inheritance, genomics, multilevel selection, niche construction, physiology, behavior, biosemiotics, chemical reaction theory, and other fields. In the view of the authors, active biological processes are responsible for the direction and the rate of evolution. Essays in this collection grapple with topics from the two-way “read-write” genome to cognition and decision-making in plants to the niche-construction activities of many organisms to the self-making evolution of humankind. As this collection compellingly shows, and as bacterial geneticist James Shapiro emphasizes, “The capacity of living organisms to alter their own heredity is undeniable.”
... The environmental modifications created by organisms can sometimes outlast the original niche constructor and affect future generations of their own and other species. This "ecological inheritance" not only constitutes an additional mechanism for transmitting information across generations, and thus an impor tant component in a broadened conception of inheritance (Danchin et al., 2011;Bonduriansky, 2012;Jablonka & Lamb, 2014), it also provides a plau-sible non-Lamarckian route by which acquired characteristics can influence evolution, namely by generating long-lasting modifications in the patterns of natu ral se lection. Especially pronounced in humans, but also pre sent in other species (Whiten, 2021), socially learned information represents a second system of transgenerational inheritance resulting in cultural evolution (Cavalli-Sforza & Feldman, 1981;Boyd & Richerson, 1985;Henrich & McElreath, 2003;Deffner & Kandler, 2019). ...
A unique exploration of teleonomy—also known as “evolved purposiveness”—as a major influence in evolution by a broad range of specialists in biology and the philosophy of science.
The evolved purposiveness of living systems, termed “teleonomy” by chronobiologist Colin Pittendrigh, has been both a major outcome and causal factor in the history of life on Earth. Many theorists have appreciated this over the years, going back to Lamarck and even Darwin in the nineteenth century. In the mid-twentieth century, however, the complex, dynamic process of evolution was simplified into the one-way, bottom-up, single gene-centered paradigm widely known as the modern synthesis. In Evolution “On Purpose,” edited by Peter A. Corning, Stuart A. Kauffman, Denis Noble, James A. Shapiro, Richard I. Vane-Wright, and Addy Pross, some twenty theorists attempt to modify this reductive approach by exploring in depth the different ways in which living systems have themselves shaped the course of evolution.
Evolution “On Purpose” puts forward a more inclusive theoretical synthesis that goes far beyond the underlying principles and assumptions of the modern synthesis to accommodate work since the 1950s in molecular genetics, developmental biology, epigenetic inheritance, genomics, multilevel selection, niche construction, physiology, behavior, biosemiotics, chemical reaction theory, and other fields. In the view of the authors, active biological processes are responsible for the direction and the rate of evolution. Essays in this collection grapple with topics from the two-way “read-write” genome to cognition and decision-making in plants to the niche-construction activities of many organisms to the self-making evolution of humankind. As this collection compellingly shows, and as bacterial geneticist James Shapiro emphasizes, “The capacity of living organisms to alter their own heredity is undeniable.”
... Failure to appreciate that criteria of explanatory adequacy depend on how the evolutionary pro cess is represented by theories and models can make it appear as if the privileged role of genes and natu ral se lection is indispensable to any evolutionary explanation. This, in turn, may result in an overreliance on fitness-based explanations and neglect of alternatives (e.g., Gould & Lewontin, 1979;Lloyd, 2005), slow ac cep tance of phenomena that do not fit assumptions (e.g., extrage ne tic inheritance; Jablonka & Lamb, 2014), and limited explanatory power as a result of failure to account for adaptive biases imposed by goal-oriented pro cesses (e.g., development; West-Eberhard, 2003;Gerhart & Kirschner, 2007). The ge ne tic repre sen ta tion of development and evolution also carries several conceptual difficulties and inconsistencies (Keller, 2000;Oyama, 2000;Griffiths & Stotz, 2013). ...
A unique exploration of teleonomy—also known as “evolved purposiveness”—as a major influence in evolution by a broad range of specialists in biology and the philosophy of science.
The evolved purposiveness of living systems, termed “teleonomy” by chronobiologist Colin Pittendrigh, has been both a major outcome and causal factor in the history of life on Earth. Many theorists have appreciated this over the years, going back to Lamarck and even Darwin in the nineteenth century. In the mid-twentieth century, however, the complex, dynamic process of evolution was simplified into the one-way, bottom-up, single gene-centered paradigm widely known as the modern synthesis. In Evolution “On Purpose,” edited by Peter A. Corning, Stuart A. Kauffman, Denis Noble, James A. Shapiro, Richard I. Vane-Wright, and Addy Pross, some twenty theorists attempt to modify this reductive approach by exploring in depth the different ways in which living systems have themselves shaped the course of evolution.
Evolution “On Purpose” puts forward a more inclusive theoretical synthesis that goes far beyond the underlying principles and assumptions of the modern synthesis to accommodate work since the 1950s in molecular genetics, developmental biology, epigenetic inheritance, genomics, multilevel selection, niche construction, physiology, behavior, biosemiotics, chemical reaction theory, and other fields. In the view of the authors, active biological processes are responsible for the direction and the rate of evolution. Essays in this collection grapple with topics from the two-way “read-write” genome to cognition and decision-making in plants to the niche-construction activities of many organisms to the self-making evolution of humankind. As this collection compellingly shows, and as bacterial geneticist James Shapiro emphasizes, “The capacity of living organisms to alter their own heredity is undeniable.”
... First, as the examples below will illustrate, the factors of attraction that constitute the landscape and its attractor may belong to multiple domains. Second, we disagree with Sperber's assumption that human cognitive biases are innate and domain-specific (Jablonka & Lamb, 2014) and agree with Heyes (2018) that such biases are culturally-learned and culturally evolved. They are, on the view we take, parts of the culturally constructed networks of interactions that form the self-sustaining dynamics of the socio-cultural attractor state and can themselves be amenable to landscape-guided analysis. ...
Can the study of epigenetics, physiology and cognitive science contribute to the investigation and understanding of social-cultural systems while respecting the autonomy of social research? I present a developmental system theory (DST) approach, which takes the unit of analysis to be the system of self-sustaining interactions among multiple biological, psychological and social resources. On this view, the cybernetic architecture of the networks that constitute the system channels development, so that different trajectories lead to convergent end-states, accounting for the system’s developmental stability, as well as shedding light on the conditions that lead to departures from typical outcomes. Based on previous work, which is extended here, I suggest that Waddington’s epigenetic landscape metaphor, which was built to illustrate the relationship between genetic networks and embryological development is a useful tool for thinking about the temporal dynamics of social systems, capturing some important features of social stability and change at different scales and levels of social organization. I discuss five social systems using the landscape metaphor and explore the implications of this DST approach for investigating the relations between socio-cultural development and evolution.
... The DNA molecule is not the whole book of life but only a part of it. 13 This study adopts the idea that information is material and concrete, that it is an attribute of matter that feeds evolution, that interactions are a result of information. 14 Also, we assume that information is a basic property of the universe and that evolution is the gain of information over time. ...
Background
Prion diseases or TSE diseases are a group of neurodegenerative disorders that manifest in several forms in humans, such as Kuru disease, Creutzfeldt‒Jakob disease (CJD), Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker syndrome (GSS) and fatal familial insomnia.
Objective
In this study, we propose a multimodular hypothesis of prion diseases. According to this hypothesis, a prion disease manifests because of the interaction of two genetic modules, such as the PRNP gene module and that of the gene or genes responsible for one or more chaperones, with one or some chemical module on whose structure the products of the genes or genetic modules interact.
Methods
This study presents the perspective that modular thinking can allow us to overcome conceptual obstacles in the understanding and interpretation of prion diseases.
Results and Discussion
The structure of the chemical module or modules is directly responsible for the folding or misfolding of the PrPC protein. The etiology of acquired prion diseases is explained based on this hypothesis. Hence, it has been proposed that (g) CJD involves the PRNP gene mutant and one or more mutant genes for one or more chaperone genes. In contrast, sCJD has one or more mutant chaperone genes. When does iCJD occur? Healthy individuals manifest acquired prion disease through contamination when infected with one or more mutant chaperones. The mutant chaperones interact with the prion protein, and PrPC is converted to its isoform PrPSc. In a recent study, there was a case of an individual with CJD after COVID-19 infection.
Conclusion
This case emphasizes the link between neuroinflammation and protein misfolding and provides proof that chemical module formation is a necessary condition for the manifestation of prion diseases.
... The nature-nurture dichotomy still traps us, when we know better. Among developmental psychologists, Elman et al. (1996) contributed a landmark volume just before the turn of the century showing an alternative approach, one that acknowledges how deeply intertwined developmental systems are, but we have very far to go in really adopting such an approach, despite other important and supportive volumes that have followed (e.g., Jablonka and Lamb, 2005). ...
... Recent studies have revealed important roles played by the environment in ecology, evolution, and development of biological organisms, within the so-called "eco-evo-devo" field (13)(14)(15)(16)(17). Phenotypic plasticity of cells can emerge under time-varying environments, which help cells respond quickly to environmental fluctuations (18)(19)(20). Also, the passing down of extra-cellular environments could serve as another mechanism for non-genetic inheritance, which could not only affect single cells, but also a community of cells and their interactions (21)(22)(23)(24)(25). For example, microorganisms and the interactions among them can shape their environment, a phenomenon known as niche construction, leading to the coevolution of organisms and their environment (26)(27)(28)(29). ...
Microalgae are key players in the global carbon cycle and emerging producers of biofuels. Algal growth is critically regulated by its complex microenvironment, including nitrogen and phosphorous levels, light intensity, and temperature. Mechanistic understanding of algal growth is important for maintaining a balanced ecosystem at a time of climate change and population expansion, as well as providing essential formulations for optimizing biofuel production. Current mathematical models for algal growth in complex environmental conditions are still in their infancy, due in part to the lack of experimental tools necessary to generate data amenable to theoretical modeling. Here, we present a high throughput microfluidic platform that allows for algal growth with precise control over light intensity and nutrient gradients, while also performing real-time microscopic imaging. We propose a general mathematical model that describes algal growth under multiple physical and chemical environments, which we have validated experimentally. We showed that light and nitrogen colimited the growth of the model alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii following a multiplicative Monod kinetic model. The microfluidic platform presented here can be easily adapted to studies of other photosynthetic micro-organisms, and the algal growth model will be essential for future bioreactor designs and ecological predictions.
... Human adaptation and human adaptability are key aspects of human culture that buffer environmental stressors and occur before genetic adaptations, which are costlier. Researchers have argued that some of the adaptations that explain the expansion of our species are partially cultural; that is, they are cumulative and transmitted by social networks (Henrich & Boyd, 1998;Jablonka & Lamb, 2006). Thus defined, LEK meets the requirements of being a culturally adaptive trait, but a rigorous test of whether LEK enhances adaptation would require testing alternative hypotheses and linking LEK with reproductive success and survival of individuals, households, or communities (Gould & Lewontin, 1979;Nielsen, 2009;Reyes-García, Balbo, et al., 2016, pp. ...
Emotions are often thought of as internal mental states centering on individuals' subjective feelings and evaluations. This understanding is consistent with studies of emotion narratives, or the descriptions people give for experienced events that they regard as emotions. Yet these studies, and contemporary psychology more generally, often rely on observations of educated Europeans and European Americans, constraining psychological theory and methods. In this article, we present observations from an inductive, qualitative analysis of interviews conducted with the Hadza, a community of small-scale hunter-gatherers in Tanzania, and juxtapose them with a set of interviews conducted with Americans from North Carolina. Although North Carolina event descriptions largely conformed to the assumptions of eurocentric psychological theory, Hadza descriptions foregrounded action and bodily sensations, the physical environment, immediate needs, and the experiences of social others. These observations suggest that subjective feelings and internal mental states may not be the organizing principle of emotion the world around. Qualitative analysis of emotion narratives from outside of a U.S. (and western) cultural context has the potential to uncover additional diversity in meaning-making, offering a descriptive foundation on which to build a more robust and inclusive science of emotion.
... Studies of European populations using two centuries of church records suggest that the life expectancies of drought children and grandchildren are significantly impacted, along with many of the non-specific indicators of stress noted in MCR populations (Kaati et al., 2007;ole-MoiYoi, 2013). Furthermore, a growing number of population biologists have proposed that severe droughts may have an epigenetic effect on the human genome beyond three generations, a result of significant environmental changes and related human behaviors (De Rooij et al., 2022;Francis, 2012;Jablonka & Lamb, 2014). ...
In a poorly understood yet recurring phenomenon, communities occupying diverse settings within a region may undertake large-scale migrations that cannot be easily attributed to single variables such as climate change. As a result, the study of these movements has increasingly focused on the distinct histories of localities to address how they may have articulated as large-scale abandonments. We adopt this micro-history perspective on the fourteenth to fifteenth century depopulation of a large portion of the North American Midwest and Southeast, popularly referred to as the Vacant Quarter. Our research on the Middle Cumberland drainage within the Vacant Quarter suggests that a significant exodus began slowly ca. 1300 CE; then, it accelerated extremely rapidly in the first half of the fifteenth century CE. This genesis of this trajectory seems to be related to a pattern of severe droughts, but it was brought to a close by social and demographic challenges such as endemic conflict and adverse health conditions.
... Maturana expressed concern that the biology of love has been forsaken by the dominant culture, undermining the development of homo sapiens-amans and instead shifting human evolution toward homo sapiens-aggressans and homo sapiens-arrogans because "the manner of living conserved from one generation to the next, as a particular configuration of organism-niche relations, becomes the operational dynamic center around which everything else is open to change" (Maturana and Verden-Zoller, 2008, p. 2). As one of humanity's extra-genetic inheritances, along with cells, body plans, ecology, and culture (Oyama et al., 2001;Jablonka and Lamb, 2005), the evolved nest may be critical for shaping the biology that undergirds health through sociostasis (Carter, 2022) and the biology that shapes culture. If attachment is a regulatory theory (Schore, 2003) that fosters various forms of self-regulation in the child, the evolved nest may provide the mechanism by which regulation occurs, affecting multiple systems including the oxytocinergic system. ...
Prosociality, orientation to attuned, empathic relationships, is built from the ground up, through supportive care in early life that fosters healthy neurobiological structures that shape behavior. Numerous social and environmental factors within early life have been identified as critical variables influencing child physiological and psychological outcomes indicating a growing need to synthesize which factors are the most influential. To address this gap, we examined the influence of early life experiences according to the evolved developmental niche or evolved nest and its influence on child neurobiological and sociomoral outcomes, specifically, the oxytocinergic system and prosociality, respectively. To-date, this is the first review to utilize the evolved nest framework as an investigatory lens to probe connections between early life experience and child neurobiological and sociomoral outcomes. The evolved nest is comprised of characteristics over 30 million years old and is organized to meet a child’s basic needs as they mature. Converging evidence indicates that humanity’s evolved nest meets the needs of a rapidly developing brain, optimizing normal development. The evolved nest for young children includes soothing perinatal experiences, breastfeeding, positive touch, responsive care, multiple allomothers, self-directed play, social embeddedness, and nature immersion. We examined what is known about the effects of each evolved nest component on oxytocinergic functioning, a critical neurobiological building block for pro-sociomorality. We also examined the effects of the evolved nest on prosociality generally. We reviewed empirical studies from human and animal research, meta-analyses and theoretical articles. The review suggests that evolved nest components influence oxytocinergic functioning in parents and children and help form the foundations for prosociality. Future research and policy should consider the importance of the first years of life in programming the neuroendocrine system that undergirds wellbeing and prosociality. Complex, interaction effects among evolved nest components as well as among physiological and sociomoral processes need to be studied. The most sensible framework for examining what builds and enhances prosociality may be the millions-year-old evolved nest.
... In the case of genes, decisions play a relatively small role because phenotypic modifi cations cannot be transmitted (cf. Jablonka and Lamb 2005). While all organisms have mechanisms to adapt as individuals to environmental contingencies, nothing approaching a rational urorganism has ever evolved. ...
Experts discuss the implications of the ways humans reach decisions through the conscious and subconscious processing of information.
Conscious control enables human decision makers to override routines, to exercise willpower, to find innovative solutions, to learn by instruction, to decide collectively, and to justify their choices. These and many more advantages, however, come at a price: the ability to process information consciously is severely limited and conscious decision makers are liable to hundreds of biases. Measured against the norms of rational choice theory, conscious decision makers perform poorly. But if people forego conscious control, in appropriate tasks, they perform surprisingly better: they handle vast amounts of information; they update prior information; they find appropriate solutions to ill-defined problems.
This inaugural Strüngmann Forum Report explores the human ability to make decisions, consciously as well as without conscious control. It explores decision-making strategies, including deliberate and intuitive; explicit and implicit; processing information serially and in parallel, with a general-purpose apparatus, or with task-specific neural subsystems. The analysis is at four levels—neural, psychological, evolutionary, and institutional—and the discussion is extended to the definition of social problems and the design of better institutional interventions. The results presented differ greatly from what could be expected under standard rational choice theory and deviate even more from the alternate behavioral view of institutions. New challenges emerge (for example, the issue of free will) and some purported social problems almost disappear if one adopts a more adequate model of human decision making.
El artículo propone, desde la resignificación que del concepto de cuidado han impulsado diferentes reflexiones y movimientos principalmente feministas y de mujeres, las implicaciones que afectan nuestra comprensión fundamental del cuerpo y del modo en que constituimos las comunidades humanas. Desde diferentes perspectivas teóricas, el reconocimiento del cuidado como una actividad compleja, que pone en relación diversos niveles interpersonales, sociales y ecológicos, propone y encarna en tramas comunitarias concretas de trabajo de cuidados, exigencias fundamentales a considerar desde un punto de vista ético y político, que pueden ofrecer pautas para la organización y el desarrollo de las comunidades humanas como sistemas de cuidado, que contrastan con las comprensiones tradicionales individualistas, colectivistas y estatalistas.
The central idea of the chapter is, how new developments in evolutionary biology make us see inheritance in new ways, and these new ways create new possibilities to use them how to use them in medicine. The canonical understanding of evolutionary medicine as discussed so far, does two different things; it uses Environment of Evolutionary Adaptiveness (EEA) concept to define matches and mismatches through the evolutionary history of organisms firstly, and secondly it uses evolutionary perspectives to understand the behaviours of non-organismic entities such as cancer cells and hologenomes. EEA concept will be employed to account for an individualized and specified understanding of disease when it comes to diagnostics and intervention. From that point, I will further assess an understanding of the frontiers of evolutionary medicine and its new capabilities. The central idea is a very simple one; the theories and the tools we use to understand evolution are changing and in return, the general perspective in evolutionary medicine—if it is taken in the broad sense instead of the canonized vision—will change. Eventually, I claim that the new developments in evolutionary biology lead us to see disease in a way in which we must count in the environmental elements and see the concept of disease in an individualized way. This individualization comes in two counts, first as epistemic individualization of the explanation (connected to token character of medical explanations), and second, metaphysical individualization of disease.
This article discusses the metaphysics of development and evolution. Which most fundamental assumptions about the structure of reality underlie our thinking about development and evolution? Against the backdrop of major lines of thought in the history of western metaphysics, I argue that the characteristic disregard of development in neo-Darwinist evolutionary theory is due to an underlying view of reality in terms of things (thing ontology), and that putting development back into evolution, as intended by the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis, requires understanding reality in terms of processes (process ontology). I show how a metaphysical paradigm shift from thing ontology to process ontology, and a philosophy of biology informed accordingly by process ontology (process biology), can advance our understanding of development and evolution.
Becoming Neolithic examines the revolutionary transformation of human life that was taking place around 12,000 years ago in parts of southwest Asia. Hunter-gatherer communities were building the first permanent settlements, creating public monuments and symbolic imagery, and beginning to cultivate crops and manage animals.
These communities changed the tempo of cultural, social, technological and economic innovation. Trevor Watkins sets the story of becoming Neolithic in the context of contemporary cultural evolutionary theory. There have been 70 years of international inter-disciplinary research in the field and in the laboratory. Stage by stage, he unfolds an up-to-date understanding of the archaeology, the environmental and climatic evidence and the research on the slow domestication of plants and animals. Turning to the latest theoretical work on cultural evolution and cultural niche construction, he shows why the transformation accomplished in the Neolithic began to accelerate the scale and tempo of human history. Everything that followed the Neolithic, up to our own times, has happened in a different way from the tens of thousands of years of human evolution that preceded it.
This well-documented account offers a useful synthesis for students of prehistoric archaeology and anyone with an interest in our prehistoric roots. This new narrative of the first rapid transformation in human evolution is also informative to those interested in cultural evolutionary theory.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction |7 pages
chapter 1|14 pages
A Concentration of Opportunity
chapter 2|23 pages
Changing Subsistence Strategies
Foraging to Farming
chapter 3|17 pages
Changing Subsistence Strategies
Hunting and Herding
chapter 4|18 pages
Early Epipalaeolithic – The Transformation Begins
chapter 5|21 pages
Complex Hunter-Harvesters in the Levant and beyond
chapter 6|26 pages
Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic – Transforming Their World
chapter 7|18 pages
Late Pre-Pottery Neolithic – Climax
chapter 8|15 pages
Further Transformation
Dispersal and Expansion
chapter 9|15 pages
The Evolutionary Framework for the Story
chapter 10|19 pages
The Epipalaeolithic–Neolithic Transformation
The Pivot of Cultural Evolution
chapter 11|12 pages
The Problem of Neolithic Religion
chapter 12|13 pages
The Triple A
Aggregation, Acceleration, Anthropocene
Recent research suggests that contemporary American society is marked by heightened hostile racial rhetoric, alongside increasing salience of White nationalists who justify an ideology of racial hierarchy with claims of biological superiority. Media coverage of such genetics research has often emphasized a deterministic (or causal) narrative by suggesting that specific genes directly increase negative outcomes and highlighting reported genetic differences between racial groups. Across two experimental studies, we examine the effect of the media’s portrayal of scientific findings linking genes with negative health and behavioral outcomes on measures of racism. We find that deterministic genetic attributions for health and behavioral outcomes can lead to more negative racial out-group attitudes. Importantly, we also investigate potential interventions in the presentation of genetic science research. Our research has implications for understanding racial attitudes and racialized ideology in contemporary American politics, as well as for framing scientific communication in intergroup contexts.
Gravity is a constant environmental factor in plant growth and development. Real or simulated microgravity causes stress responses in plants, in which DNA methylation is involved. We investigated the effect of the DNA methylation inhibitor 5-azacytidine (5-aza) on the perception and transduction of the gravity signal into gravitropism and on the peroxidase isoenzyme spectra in Physcomitrium patens (Hedw.) Mitt. protonemata under conditions of altered gravity, as well as on Polytrichum arcticum Sw. ex. Brid. phenotype branching and variability of gravitropic angles of lateral branches. The influence of DNA methylation on the perception and realization of the gravity signal was determined. DNA demethylation in the 5-aza presence decreased the gravisensitivity of stolons — less at the stage of perception and more during gravity signal transduction. An analysis of gravitropism under the inhibiton of DNA methylation showed the signal preservation in cell memory regardless of the stage of gravistimulation. However, cell memory about a signal was shorter at the perception stage and longer at the transduction stage, that affects a rate of the gravitropic growth recovery. The different effect of DNA methylation on gravi-induction is considered as an epigenetically regulated process that modifies morphological differences in mosses’ tropismunder under real microgravity in space flight and simulated microgravity on earth. Resistance to microgravity depends on intensity of cell wall metabolism. Peroxidase activity plays an important role in the biogenesis and mechanical stability of the cell wall. It was shown that the changes in the expression of peroxidase genes and enzyme isoforms in the P. patens protonemata may be a result of DNA demethylation. Epigenetic polymorphism of peroxidase under microgravity is regarded as a probable factor of individual resistance of plant organisms.
The view advanced by Madole & Harden falls back on the dogma of a gene as a DNA sequence that codes for a fixed product with an invariant function regardless of temporal and spatial contexts. This outdated perspective entrenches the metaphor of genes as static units of information and glosses over developmental complexities.
El análisis de las interacciones entre contribuciones de la naturaleza y las preferencias que diferentes actores tienen hacia ellas permite identifica disyuntivas y conflictos, así como oportunidades para la conciliar la conservación de la biodiversidad y su aprovechamiento. Las herramientas aquí presentadas permiten la identificación participativa de obstáculos y oportunidades para reducir disyuntivas, conciliar necesidades y visiones distintas entre los actores involucrados, y poder así facilitar un manejo sustentable de las contribuciones de la naturaleza.
Affective science is stuck in a version of the nature-versus-nurture debate, with theorists arguing whether emotions are evolved adaptations or psychological constructions. We do not see these as mutually exclusive options. Many adaptive behaviors that humans have evolved to be good at, such as walking, emerge during development – not according to a genetically dictated program, but through interactions between the affordances of the body, brain, and environment. We suggest emotions are the same. As developing humans acquire increasingly complex goals and learn optimal strategies for pursuing those goals, they are inevitably pulled to particular brain-body-behavior states that maximize outcomes and self-reinforce via positive feedback loops. We call these recurring, self-organized states emotions. Emotions display many of the hallmark features of self-organized attractor states, such as hysteresis (prior events influence the current state), degeneracy (many configurations of the underlying variables can produce the same global state), and stability. Because most bodily, neural, and environmental affordances are shared by all humans – we all have cardiovascular systems, cerebral cortices, and caregivers who raised us – similar emotion states emerge in all of us. This perspective helps reconcile ideas that, at first glance, seem contradictory, such as emotion universality and neural degeneracy.
We compared two digital humanities methods in the analysis of a contested scientific term. “Epigenetics” is as enigmatic as it is popular. Some authors argue that its meaning has diluted over time as this term has come to describe a widening range of entities and mechanisms (Haig, International Journal of Epidemiology 41:13–16, 2012). Others propose both a Waddingtonian “broad sense” and a mechanistic “narrow sense” definition to capture its various scientific uses (Stotz and Griffiths, History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 38:22, 2016). We evaluated these proposals by first replicating a recent analysis by (Linquist and Fullerton, Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 42:137–154, 2021). We analyzed the 1100 most frequently cited abstracts on epigenetics across four disciplines: proximal biology, biomedicine, general biology, and evolution. Each abstract was coded for its heritability commitments (if any) and functional interpretation. A second study applied LDA topic modelling to the same corpus, thus providing a useful methodological comparison. The two methods converged on a discipline-relative ambiguity. Within such disciplines as biomedicine or molecular biology that focus on proximate mechanisms, “epigenetic(s)” refers to a range of molecular structures while specifying nothing in particular about their heritability. This proximal conception was primarily associated with the functions of gene regulation and disease. In contrast, a second relatively uncommon sense of “epigenetic(s)” is restricted to a small proportion of evolutionary abstracts. It refers to many of the same molecular structures, but regards them as trans-generationally inherited and associated with adaptive phenotypic plasticity. This finding underscores the benefit of digital tools in complementing traditional conceptual analysis. Philosophers should be cautious not to conflate the relatively uncommon evolutionary sense of epigenetics with the more widely used proximal conception.
In this article, I invite an ontogenealogical approach to the analysis of the lived, experienced materiality of the body-environment assemblage. In particular, the article explores the tie between the bio(il)logical and biopolitical, characterizing this tie as a twofold ontogenealogical linkage that both a) reflects the genealogical character of life itself, as well as b) invites a critical analysis of the prevailing ontologies as co-constructive of lived materialities. The significance of the ontogenealogical approach is studied in context with the parallelism between the genealogies of the self and the environment, highlighting the need for elaborating a critique of the dominant imaginaries of the human self via the notions of the abject and body-environment processuality. The article highlights the potential of considering local ontogenealogies that reflect alternative ontologies and run parallel to the dominant paradigm of the Global North.
Difundir la ciencia es una importante tarea de los investigadores, quienes tienen la responsabilidad de compartir sus descubrimientos con la sociedad. Sin embargo, muchos investigadores se sienten amenazados por la tarea de escribir y publicar divulgación científica y pueden tener dificultades para encontrar el tiempo y la motivación para hacerlo. En este artículo, discutiremos algunas estrategias para convencer efectivamente a los investigadores de que escriban y publiquen divulgación científica sin poner en peligro sus carreras o reputaciones. En particular, nos centraremos en la divulgación de la ciencia en el campo de la genética, aunque muchas de las estrategias comentadas aquí pueden aplicarse a todas las ciencias. ¿Por qué es importante la divulgación científica? Antes de analizar las estrategias para persuadir a los investigadores de que difundan la ciencia, es importante recordar por qué es importante que lo hagan en primer lugar, así como se aprende a amar cuando amas, se aprende a escribir escribiendo. En primer lugar, la difusión de la ciencia es un medio para garantizar que los resultados de la investigación lleguen a un público más amplio, lo que puede generar importantes beneficios para la sociedad. Por ejemplo, la divulgación científica puede ayudar a educar al público sobre temas de salud importantes, como la prevención de enfermedades genéticas. También puede alentar el diálogo público sobre temas científicos y ayudar a las personas a tomar decisiones informadas. La divulgación de la ciencia puede beneficiar a los propios investigadores. Por ejemplo, puede ayudarlos a conectarse con otros investigadores y construir una reputación como expertos en su campo. También puede ayudarlos a obtener financiación y apoyo para su investigación. ¿Por qué los investigadores pueden ser reacios a publicar la ciencia? A pesar de la importancia de difundir la ciencia, muchos investigadores pueden ser reacios a hacerlo por diversas razones. Algunos investigadores pueden creer que la comunicación científica es una tarea secundaria y que su principal responsabilidad es realizar investigaciones originales. También pueden preocuparse por cuánto tiempo les tomará escribir y publicar divulgación científica, especialmente si no saben cómo hacerlo. Además, algunos investigadores pueden preocuparse por cómo serán percibidos por sus pares y superiores si participan en la divulgación de la ciencia. En algunos campos, la comunicación científica puede verse como una actividad menos importante o incluso como una distracción de las principales tareas de investigación. Algunos investigadores también pueden temer que los informes científicos sean malinterpretados o distorsionados por la prensa o el público, lo que podría dañar su reputación. Sin embargo, es importante recordar que la divulgación de la ciencia puede beneficiar tanto a los investigadores como a la sociedad en general.
A evolução biológica é permeada por obstáculos que dificultam sua aprendizagem, e estão presentes nos diferentes agentes de ensino, como o livro didático. Este, recebe evidente atenção do governo federal pelo Programa Nacional do Livro Didático (PNLD). Contudo, em relação à evolução biológica, pesquisas demonstram necessidade de reestruturação dessa temática, especialmente sua contextualização histórico-filosófica. Assim, nosso objetivo foi verificar como essa contextualização ocorre nos conteúdos de Evolução das duas coleções, mais utilizadas no país, de livros didáticos aprovados pelo PNLD-2018/2020. Para tanto, utilizamos a investigação qualitativa e o método de Análise de Conteúdo para interpretação dos dados. Nossas análises demonstram que a contextualização histórico-filosófica da evolução está distante do esperado mas, comparativamente às primeiras pesquisas, houve avanço em seu desenvolvimento.
In this chapter, I explore the “classical” model of science. It underlies the scientific and industrial revolutions, it is the model we know the best, and it is foundational in healthcare. The classical model applies to the “macro-state” of static elements, linear interactions, and predictable effects from individual causes. Overreliance on the classical model can lead to the interprofessional learning problem associated with Part I, premature closure.KeywordsCauseEffectObjectivityContiguityPredictabilityReductionismEmergence
In this study, we propose a multimodular hypothesis of prion diseases. According to this hypothesis, a prion disease manifests because of the interaction of two genetic modules, such as the PRNP gene module and that of the gene or genes responsible for one or more chaperones, with one or some chemical module on whose structure the products of the genes or genetic modules interact. The structure of the chemical module or modules is directly responsible for the folding or misfolding of the PrP C protein. The etiology of acquired prion diseases is explained based on this hypothesis. Hence, it has been proposed that (g) CJD involves the PRNP gene mutant and one or more mutant genes for one or more chaperone genes. In contrast, sCJD has one or more mutant chaperone genes. When does iCJD occur? Healthy individuals manifest acquired prion disease through contamination when infected with one or more mutant chaperones. The mutant chaperones interact with the prion protein, and PrP C is converted to its isoform PrP Sc. In a recent study, there was a case of an individual with CJD after COVID-19 infection. This case emphasizes the link between neuroinflammation and protein misfolding and provides proof that chemical module formation is a necessary condition for the manifestation of prion diseases.
After reviewing the evidence that led many evolutionary biologists to highlight the necessity to have the Modern Synthesis of Evolution evolve towards a new more integrative framework, I discuss characteristics that should prevail in this endeavour. I sketch a pathway towards the new synthesis by building the new synthesis around inheritance mechanisms (i.e. parent-offspring resemblance) as this is a keystone concept of evolutionary approaches since Darwin and Wallace. For this, we must incorporate all known mechanisms of inheritance into the new synthesis. One way to facilitate this effort would be to enshrine this inclusive ambition in the name of the new synthesis, for instance by calling it the “Inclusive Evolutionary Synthesis (IES)”. Historically, the Modern Synthesis unified two broad fields of what Mayr called “evolutionary biology” (as opposed to “functional biology”). Building the IES will imply merging both functional and evolutionary biology into a single integrative framework. To my opinion, this constitutes “The” major challenge in this endeavour as these two fields have been independent for decades. I finally compare the current change in the general evolutionary framework to the one that happened when astrophysics moved from Newton to the special and then general relativity a hundred years ago.
Evolutionary concepts are used, with varying and arguable degrees of scientific utility, across a wide range of disciplines. Evolution education, however, remains overwhelmingly within the confines of biology education, when it is taught at all within general education. The reasons for this disciplinary myopism are complex, and normative guidance for curriculum designers is scarce. This contribution explores how understanding the structures of knowledge, or the organization of facts and generalizations in science, cognition, and education, may help illuminate the educational potential and evidence-informed pedagogical practices appropriate for teaching about the interdisciplinary application of evolutionary concepts.
This paper introduces a variational formulation of natural selection, paying special attention to the nature of ‘things’ and the way that different ‘kinds’ of ‘things’ are individuated from—and influence—each other. We use the Bayesian mechanics of particular partitions to understand how slow phylogenetic processes constrain—and are constrained by—fast, phenotypic processes. The main result is a formulation of adaptive fitness as a path integral of phenotypic fitness. Paths of least action, at the phenotypic and phylogenetic scales, can then be read as inference and learning processes, respectively. In this view, a phenotype actively infers the state of its econiche under a generative model, whose parameters are learned via natural (Bayesian model) selection. The ensuing variational synthesis features some unexpected aspects. Perhaps the most notable is that it is not possible to describe or model a population of conspecifics per se. Rather, it is necessary to consider populations of distinct natural kinds that influence each other. This paper is limited to a description of the mathematical apparatus and accompanying ideas. Subsequent work will use these methods for simulations and numerical analyses—and identify points of contact with related mathematical formulations of evolution.
This chapter examines production regimes and their idiosyncracies, with particular reference to the co-evolution of economic and legal institutions in the varieties of capitalism. It first considers two theories that explain the institutional varieties of capitalism, namely, the theory of production regimes and the theory of institutional co-selection. It then looks at the theory of self-organising social systems as well as its critique of the theories of production regimes and co-selection. It also discusses the theory of autopoietic social systems and its emphasis on self-organisation and self-reproduction, together with the multi-polarity and cyclicity of production regimes. The chapter concludes by outlining the main assumptions of autopoiesis theory, focusing on just-in-time contracts in the United States and Germany.
A metatheoretical and historiographical re-analysis of the Evolutionary Synthesis (the process) and the Synthetic Theory (the result) leads to the following conclusion: The Synthetic Theory is not a reductionistic, but rather a structuralistic theory with a limited range of relevant hierarchical levels. Historically the Synthesis was not a sudden event but a rational long-term project carried out between 1930 and 1950 by a large number of biologists in several countries. In the second part of our paper the contributions of several German biologists to the Synthesis are analyzed.
Members of religious groups exhibit cultural uniformity in a variety of ways and to different extents. In this paper I discuss the different ways in which this uniformity is achieved, the advantages and disadvantages that cultural uniformity offers a group, and the broader effects of cultural uniformity on cultural evolution. Partial cultural uniformity can come about in different ways, including: (1) selection involving positive and negative feedbacks e.g., Fisher process); (2) coordinating signals that include hard-to-fake displays; and (3) the imposition of protocols that are necessarily similar enough to enable communication. These processes often interact, resulting in rapid uniformity in some aspects of culture. Once a sufficient level of cultural uniformity is achieved, it has important
consequences for the group as a whole and for individual members. These include: (1) credible signaling which is not costly; (2) increased detection of deviant or novel behavior; (3) increased group cohesion and commitment; (4) an agreed upon central authority that can divide labor and direct group-wide cultural change; and (5) an increase in the rate of adaptation due to cultural group selection. These effects help explain the stability and diversity of religious group
practices.
Introduction In the last decade, the introduction of a developmental framework into the core of evolutionary theory has brought about a radical change in perspective. In the emerging synthesis, known as “evolutionary developmental biology” (or “evo devo”), the development of the phenotype, rather than the genetic variant, assumes a primary theoretical position, and is the point of departure for evolutionary analysis. Changes in development which lead to changed phenotypes are primary and the organism exhibiting an altered phenotype is the target of selection. Genes, as West-Eberhardt (2003) succinctly has put it, “are followers in evolution”: changes in gene frequencies follow, rather then precede, phenotypic changes that mainly arise as reactions to environmental changes. The focus of developmentally informed studies of evolution is therefore on processes of development that can generate evolutionary innovation, on the constraints and generic properties of developmental systems, on the architecture of developmental networks, and on the evolution of the ability to develop and learn (Gilbert 2003). It is clear today that in order to explain the evolution of a new trait – be it morphological, physiological, or behavioral – it is necessary to explain the evolution of the developmental processes that contribute to its construction during ontogeny. Therefore, processes leading to developmental flexibility and sensitivity to environmental variations on the one hand, and to the buffering of environmental and genetic “noise” on the other hand, are important subjects of empirical and theoretical research.
This paper is an attempt to construct a programmatic framework for the evolution of human language. First, we pres- ent a novel characterization of language, which is based on some of the most recent research results in linguistics. As these results suggest, language is best characterized as a specialized communication system, dedicated to the expres- sion of a surprisingly constrained set of meanings. This characterization calls for an account of the evolution of lan- guage in terms of the interaction between cultural and genetic evolution. We develop such an evolutionary model on the basis of the mechanism of culturally-driven genetic assimilation. As we show, a careful analysis of the diverse effects of this mechanism derives some of the most crucial properties of the evolved linguistic capacity as a specific, functional communication system.
Maynard Smithis analysis of units of evolution is compared to traditional approaches generalizing Darwinis principles. Maynard Smithis key principle of multiplication is elaborated into a general account of the process of reproduction that integrates concepts of heredity and development and is applicable to all levels of the biological hierarchy. The amended analysis suggests a new unit of evolution, the ireproducer,i which generalizes the concept of a replicator. The theory of evolutionary transition, the evolutionary origin of new levels of biological organization, is revised to reflect these amendments to the analysis of units. A three-stage scenario for evolutionary transition is suggested.
Male and female homosexuality have substantial prevalence in humans. Pedigree and twin studies indicate that homosexuality has substantial heritability in both sexes, yet concordance between identical twins is low and molecular studies have failed to find associated DNA makers. This paradoxical pattern calls for an explanation. We use published data on fetal androgen signaling and gene regulation via nongenetic changes in DNA packaging (epigenetics) to develop a new model for homosexuality. It is well established that fetal androgen signaling strongly influences sexual development. We show that an unappreciated feature of this process is reduced androgen sensitivity in XX fetuses and enhanced sensitivity in XY fetuses, and that this difference is most feasibly mused by numerous sex-specific epigenetic modifications ("epi-marks") originating in embryonic stem cells. These epi-marks buffer XX fetuses from masculinization due to excess fetal androgen exposure and similarly buffer XY fetuses from androgen underexposure. Extant data indicates that individual epi-marks influence some but not other sexually dimorphic traits, vary in strength across individuals, and are produced during ontogeny and erased between generations. Those that escape erasure will steer development of the sexual phenotypes they influence in a gonad-discordant direction in opposite sex offspring, mosaically feminizing XY offspring and masculinizing XX offspring. Such sex-specific epi-marks are sexually antagonistic (SA-epi-marks) because they canalize sexual development in the parent that produced them, but contribute to gonad-trait discordances in opposite-sex offspring when unerased. In this model, homosexuality occurs when stronger-than-average SA-epi-marks (influencing sexual preference) from an opposite-sex parent escape erasure and are then paired with a weaker-than-average de novo sex-specific epi-marks produced in opposite-sex offspring. Our model predicts that homosexuality is part of a wider phenomenon in which recently evolved androgen-influenced traits commonly display gonad-trait discordances at substantial frequency, and that the molecular feature underlying most homosexuality is not DNA polymorphism(s), but epi-marks that evolved to canalize sexual dimorphic development that sometimes carryover across generations and contribute to gonad-trait discordances in opposite-sex descendants.
BDELLOID ROTIFERS ARE MICROINVERTEBRATES WITH UNIQUE CHARACTERISTICS: they have survived tens of millions of years without sexual reproduction; they withstand extreme desiccation by undergoing anhydrobiosis; and they tolerate very high levels of ionizing radiation. Recent evidence suggests that subtelomeric regions of the bdelloid genome contain sequences originating from other organisms by horizontal gene transfer (HGT), of which some are known to be transcribed. However, the extent to which foreign gene expression plays a role in bdelloid physiology is unknown. We address this in the first large scale analysis of the transcriptome of the bdelloid Adineta ricciae: cDNA libraries from hydrated and desiccated bdelloids were subjected to massively parallel sequencing and assembled transcripts compared against the UniProtKB database by blastx to identify their putative products. Of ∼29,000 matched transcripts, ∼10% were inferred from blastx matches to be horizontally acquired, mainly from eubacteria but also from fungi, protists, and algae. After allowing for possible sources of error, the rate of HGT is at least 8%-9%, a level significantly higher than other invertebrates. We verified their foreign nature by phylogenetic analysis and by demonstrating linkage of foreign genes with metazoan genes in the bdelloid genome. Approximately 80% of horizontally acquired genes expressed in bdelloids code for enzymes, and these represent 39% of enzymes in identified pathways. Many enzymes encoded by foreign genes enhance biochemistry in bdelloids compared to other metazoans, for example, by potentiating toxin degradation or generation of antioxidants and key metabolites. They also supplement, and occasionally potentially replace, existing metazoan functions. Bdelloid rotifers therefore express horizontally acquired genes on a scale unprecedented in animals, and foreign genes make a profound contribution to their metabolism. This represents a potential mechanism for ancient asexuals to adapt rapidly to changing environments and thereby persist over long evolutionary time periods in the absence of sex.
The New Thinking contained in this volume rejects an Evolutionary Psychology that is committed to innate domain-specific psychological mechanisms: gene-based adaptations that are unlearnt, developmentally fixed and culturally universal. But the New Thinking does not simply deny the importance of innate psychological traits. The problem runs deeper: the concept of innateness is not suited to distinguishing between the New Thinking and Evolutionary Psychology. That points to a more serious problem with the concept of innateness as it is applied to human psychological phenotypes. This paper argues that the features of recent human evolution highlighted by the New Thinking imply that the concept of inherited representation, set out here, is a better tool for theorizing about human cognitive evolution.
Cumulative cultural evolution is what 'makes us odd'; our capacity to learn facts and techniques from others, and to refine them over generations, plays a major role in making human minds and lives radically different from those of other animals. In this article, I discuss cognitive processes that are known collectively as 'cultural learning' because they enable cumulative cultural evolution. These cognitive processes include reading, social learning, imitation, teaching, social motivation and theory of mind. Taking the first of these three types of cultural learning as examples, I ask whether and to what extent these cognitive processes have been adapted genetically or culturally to enable cumulative cultural evolution. I find that recent empirical work in comparative psychology, developmental psychology and cognitive neuroscience provides surprisingly little evidence of genetic adaptation, and ample evidence of cultural adaptation. This raises the possibility that it is not only 'grist' but also 'mills' that are culturally inherited; through social interaction in the course of development, we not only acquire facts about the world and how to deal with it (grist), we also build the cognitive processes that make 'fact inheritance' possible (mills).
This paper evaluates and criticises the developmental systems conception of evolution and develops instead an extension of the gene's eye conception of evolution. We argue (i) Dawkin's attempt to segregate developmental and evolutionary issues about genes is unsatisfactory. On plausible views of development it is arbitrary to single out genes as the units of selection. (ii) The genotype does not carry information about the phenotype in any way that distinguishes the role of the genes in development from that other factors. (iii) There is no simple and general causal criterion which distinguishes the role of genes in development and evolution. (iv) There is, however, an important sense in which genes but not every other developmental factor represent the phenotype. (v) The idea that genes represent features of the phenotype forces us to recognise that genes are not the only, or almost the only, replicators. Many mechanisms of replication are involved in both development and evolution. (vi) A conception of evolutionary history which recognises both genetic and non-genetic replicators, lineages of replicators and interactors has advantages over both the radical rejection of the replicator/interactor distinction and the conservative restriction of replication to genetic replication.
Several Portuguese language sources from the 16th and 17th centuries document observations of chimpanzees in Sierra Leone,
made by Eur-African traders, Jesuit priests, and their informants. They detail both naturalistic observations of chimpanzees
and a unique record of historical perceptions and folklore of chimpanzee behavior and physical traits. In particular, a description
of chimpanzees using stone hammers to crack open oil palm nuts is the earliest record of such behavior.
Historically, evolutionary biologists have taken the view that an understanding of development is irrelevant to theories of evolution. However, the integration of several disciplines in recent years suggests that this position is wrong. The capacity of the organism to adapt to challenges from the environment can set up conditions that affect the subsequent evolution of its descendants. Moreover, molecular events arising from epigenetic processes can be transmitted from one generation to the next and influence genetic mutation. This in turn can facilitate evolution in the conditions in which epigenetic change was first initiated.
Hsp90 reveals phenotypic variation in the laboratory, but is Hsp90 depletion important in the wild? Recent work from Chen and Wagner in BMC Evolutionary Biology has discovered a naturally occurring Drosophila allele that downregulates Hsp90, creating sensitivity to cryptic genetic variation. Laboratory studies suggest that the exact magnitude of Hsp90 downregulation is important. Extreme Hsp90 depletion might reactivate transposable elements and/or induce aneuploidy, in addition to revealing cryptic genetic variation.
See research article http://wwww.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/12/25
The phenotypic state of the cell is commonly thought to be determined by the set of expressed genes. However, given the apparent complexity of genetic networks, it remains open what processes stabilize a particular phenotypic state. Moreover, it is not clear how unique is the mapping between the vector of expressed genes and the cell's phenotypic state. To gain insight on these issues, we study here the expression dynamics of metabolically essential genes in twin cell populations. We show that two yeast cell populations derived from a single steady-state mother population and exhibiting a similar growth phenotype in response to an environmental challenge, displayed diverse expression patterns of essential genes. The observed diversity in the mean expression between populations could not result from stochastic cell-to-cell variability, which would be averaged out in our large cell populations. Remarkably, within a population, sets of expressed genes exhibited coherent dynamics over many generations. Thus, the emerging gene expression patterns resulted from collective population dynamics. It suggests that in a wide range of biological contexts, gene expression reflects a self-organization process coupled to population-environment dynamics.
Since the Modern Synthesis, evolutionary biologists have assumed that the genetic system is the sole provider of heritable variation, and that the generation of heritable variation is largely independent of environmental changes. However, adaptive mutation, epigenetic inheritance, behavioural inheritance through social learning, and language-based information transmission have properties that allow the inheritance of induced or learnt characters. The role of induced heritable variation in evolution therefore needs to be reconsidered, and the evolution of the systems that produce induced variation needs to be studied.
Epigenetic information includes heritable signals that modulate gene expression but are not encoded in the primary nucleotide
sequence. We have studied natural epigenetic variation in three allotetraploid sibling orchid species (Dactylorhiza majalis s.str, D. traunsteineri s.l., and D. ebudensis) that differ radically in geography/ecology. The epigenetic variation released by genome doubling has been restructured in
species-specific patterns that reflect their recent evolutionary history and have an impact on their ecology and evolution,
hundreds of generations after their formation. Using two contrasting approaches that yielded largely congruent results, epigenome
scans pinpointed epiloci under divergent selection that correlate with eco-environmental variables, mainly related to water
availability and temperature. The stable epigenetic divergence in this group is largely responsible for persistent ecological
differences, which then set the stage for species-specific genetic patterns to accumulate in response to further selection
and/or drift. Our results strongly suggest a need to expand our current evolutionary framework to encompass a complementary
epigenetic dimension when seeking to understand population processes that drive phenotypic evolution and adaptation.
The presence of various mechanisms of non-genetic inheritance is one of the main problems for current evolutionary theory according to several critics. Sufficient empirical and conceptual reasons exist to take this claim seriously, but there is little consensus on the implications of multiple inheritance systems for evolutionary processes. Here we use the Price Equation as a starting point for a discussion of the differences between four recently proposed categories of inheritance systems; genetic, epigenetic, behavioral and symbolic. Specifically, we address how the components of the Price Equation encompass different non-genetic systems of inheritance in an attempt to clarify how the different systems are conceptually related. We conclude that the four classes of inheritance systems do not form distinct clusters with respect to their effect on the rate and direction of phenotypic change from one generation to the next in the absence or presence of selection. Instead, our analyses suggest that different inheritance systems can share features that are conceptually very similar, but that their implications for adaptive evolution nevertheless differ substantially as a result of differences in their ability to couple selection and inheritance.
Learning involves a usually adaptive response to an input (an external stimulus or the organism's own behaviour) in which the input-response relation is memorized; some physical traces of the relation persist and can later be the basis of a more effective response. Using toy models we show that this characterization applies not only to the paradigmatic case of neural learning, but also to cellular responses that are based on epigenetic mechanisms of cell memory. The models suggest that the research agenda of epigenetics needs to be expanded.
This chapter explores three broad ideas of culture that recur in Western thinking in the twentieth century: French, German and English; or alternatively, the Enlightenment, the Romantic, and the Classical conceptions. The French tradition represented civilisation as a progressive, cumulative human achievement; the German tradition contrasted culture to civilisation and associated I with spiritual rather than material values; the English tradition argued that the technology and materialism of modern civilisation resulted in a spiritual crisis. The chapter looks at how ideas about the nature of culture sparked political debates that became particularly intense at times of great political upheaval. It also cites the ‘culture wars’ in America during the 1990s and how ‘cultural politics’ have dominated American public discourse. Finally, it discusses a radically different approach to culture by focusing on immigrants, along with its implications for the future of anthropology.
This chapter explores the concept of cultural evolution by looking at a variety of perspectives that explain historical change, with emphasis on their advantages and limitations. It begins by considering the Marxist conception of history that focused on the role of non-human background factors in shaping human life. It then discusses two misfortunes lighted up by the history of Marxism that tend to afflict a theory about social development when it claims scientific status: fatalism and the illusion of impartiality. It also examines the evolutionary pattern for explaining social change by selectionism and stresses the importance of concentrating on the actual people involved in social change. The chapter concludes by describing the use of ‘memess’ to explain social change.
This chapter describes how symbiotic relations among organisms produce co-developmental interactions that have long-term transgenerational effects. It presents two cases that focus on selectable theromotolerance. These cases include corals and zooxanthellae and pea aphids with the bacteria Buchnera aphidicola.
Allopolyploidization is the hybridization between two species, followed by genome doubling. This chapter presents a study on wheat hybrids, demonstrating that allopolyploidization induces genome evolution by activating instantaneous radical genomic upheavals through the generation of genetic and epigenetic alterations.
This chapter explores RNA-mediated epigenetic variation, focusing on the role of small RNAs in the induction of gene expression during development. It discusses how epigenetic changes through RNA-mediated modification can induce and influence phenotypic changes in organisms.
This book examines the behaviour, social interactions/organization and habitat of the bonobo (Pan paniscus), a close relative to humans and a sibling species of the chimpanzee. P. paniscus is entirely restricted to an area south of the Zaire River. Behavioural aspects are compared to chimpanzees, evolutionary implications are also examined. Intelligence is reviewed. Interviews with bonobo researchers are reproduced. Sexual behaviour is covered in some detail. Conservation and survival prospects are also touched on. The volume is richly illustrated throughout (both wild and captive subjects).
Many animal species live in complex social groups, some of whom transmit information across generations "culturally". Humans' uniquely cultural way of life began with this kind of social organization but then acquired novel characteristics as a result of biological adaptations for interacting with other persons in species-unique forms of cooperative activity, including collaborative problem-solving, cooperative communication, and instructed learning. These more cooperative, cultural ways of doing things have as their psychological foundation various skills and motivations for shared intentionality.
The so-called Peloria case has been discussed repeatedly in world literature since the discovery of the five-spurred Linaria in 1742 and its description by Linnaeus in 1744. In 1742 a young Uppsala botanist found a peculiar specimen of the common toad-flax (now named Linaria vulgaris L.) on an island in the Stockholm archipelago. The plant, which had spread vegetatively, possessed five spurs instead of one spur, a characteristic of the common toad-flax. The material was presented to Linnaeus, who became quite excited. The finding was contrary to his concept that genera and species had universally arisen through an act of original creation and remained unchanged since then. In a famous thesis of 1744, Linnaeus called the deviating plant 'Peloria', Greek for 'monster'. The case of pelorism was discussed later on by a great number of famous writers and scientists including, for example, Goethe, Darwin, Naudin, De Vries and Stubbe. Parallel types were found in numerous species of other genera and families. Such aberrant forms are caused by spontaneous mutation. The history, mode of origin, morphology, inheritance and distribution of different Peloria mutants are discussed in the paper.
This paper examines the significance of imitation in non-human animals with respect to the phylogenetic origins of culture and cognitive complexity. It is argued that both imitation (learning about behaviour through nonspecific observation) and social learning (learning about the environment through conspecific observation) can mediate social transmission of information, and that neither is likely to play an important role in supporting behavioural traditions or culture. Current evidence suggests that imitation is unlikely to do this because it does not insulate information from modification through individual learning in the retention period between acquisition and re-transmission. Although insignificant in relation to culture, imitation apparently involves complex and little-understood cognitive operations. It is unique in requiring animals spontaneously to equate extrinsic visual input with proprioceptive and/or kinaesthetic feedback from their own actions, but not in requiring or implicating self-consciousness, representation, metarepresentation or a capacity for goal-directed action.
The publication in 1998 of Susan Blackmore's bestselling The Meme Machine re-awakened the debate over the highly controversial field of memetics. In the past couple of years, there has been an explosion of interest in "memes". The one thing noticeably missing though, has been any kind of proper debate over the validity of a concept regarded by many as scientifically suspect. This book pits intellectuals (both supporters and opponents of meme theory) against each other to battle it out and state their case. With a foreword by Daniel Dennett, and contributions from Dan Sperber, David Hull, Robert Boyd, Susan Blackmore, Henry Plotkin, and others, the result is a debate that will perhaps mark a turning point for the field and for future research.
The idea that sexual imprinting may generate sexual selection and possibly lead to speciation has been much discussed in the ethological literature. Here the feasibility of three such hypotheses is investigated using mathematical models of sexual selection in which mating preferences are acquired through imprinting and hence dependent upon the parental phenotypes. The principal findings are the following. (1) Sexual imprinting reduces the likelihood of novel adaptive traits spreading through a population, except in some circumstances in which there is heterozygote advantage. (2) Asymmetrical mating preferences, acquired through imprinting, can generate sexual selection for traits that impair survival. (3) The conditions under which sexual imprinting will maintain a genetic polymorphism in a population are fairly restricted. (4) Sexual imprinting can act as a barrier to gene flow minimizing the impact of migration and preserving and accentuating genetic differences between populations. The findings suggest that sexual imprinting may be of considerable evolutionary significance.
focus on careful description of stone-handling behavior and its practitioners, identification of the conditions in which stone handling occurs, and documentation of the route of its spread through populations of individually identified monkeys whose matrilineal relationships are known to investigators / data reveal that stone handling is unique among the socially transmitted traditional behaviors described in Japanese macaques because it occurs in the absence of any tangible direct benefits to practitioners /[address the question of whether] stone handling has been transmitted through imitation (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
c1 Marion Lamb, Biology Department, Birkbeck College, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UK.
Genomic sequence data provide evidence for a common origin of life and for its evolution by genetic variation via mutation and recombination. This paper discusses the fundamental dialectic paradigm of evolution-stability versus variability-at the crossroads of molecular genetics, population genetics, ecology, and the emerging science of experimental evolution. Experimental evolution of molecules, viruses, and bacteria can be used not only to test some basic evolutionary hypotheses but also to create new organisms for applications in biotechnology, agriculture, and medicine.
I propose we abandon the unit concept of “the evolutionary synthesis”. There was much more to evolutionary studies in the
1920s and 1930s than is suggested in our commonplace narratives of this object in history. Instead, four organising threads
capture much of evolutionary studies at this time. First, the nature of species and the process of speciation were dominating,
unifying subjects. Second, research into these subjects developed along four main lines, or problem complexes: variation,
divergence, isolation, and selection. Some calls for ‹synthesis’ focused on these problem complexes (sometimes on one of these;
other times, all). In these calls, comprehensive and pluralist compendia of plausibly relevant elements were preferred over
reaching consensus about the value of particular formulae. Third, increasing confidence in the study of common problems coincided
with methodological and epistemic changes associated with experimental taxonomy. Finally, the surge of interest in species
problems and speciation in the 1930s is intimately tied to larger trends, especially a shifting balance in the life sciences
towards process-based biologies and away from object-based naturalist disciplines. Advocates of synthesis in evolution supported,
and were adapting to, these larger trends.
Adaptive evolution is usually assumed to be directed by selective processes, development by instructive processes; evolution involves random genetic changes, development involves induced epigenetic changes. However, these distinctions are no longer unequivocal. Selection of genetic changes is a normal part of development in some organisms, and through the epigenetic system external factors can induce selectable heritable variations. Incorporating the effects of instructive processes into evolutionary thinking alters ideas about the way environmental changes lead to evolutionary change, and about the interplay between genetic and epigenetic systems.
Many important transitions in evolution are associated with novel ways of storing and transmitting information. The storage of information in DNA sequence, and its transmission through DNA replication, is a fundamental hereditary system in all extant organisms, but it is not the only way of storing and transmitting information, and has itself replaced, and evolved from, other systems. A system that transmits information can have limited heredity or indefinite heredity. With limited heredity, the number of different possible types is commensurate with, or below, that of the individuals. With indefinite heredity, the number of possible types greatly exceeds the number of individuals in any realistic system. Recent findings suggest that the emergence and subsequent evolution of very different hereditary systems, from autocatalytic chemical cycles to natural language, accompanied the major evolutionary transitions in the history of life.
It has long been believed that genetically determined, but not environmentally acquired, phenotypes can be inherited. However, a large number of recent studies have reported that phenotypes acquired from an animal's environment can be transmitted to the next generation. Moreover, epidemiology studies have hinted that a similar phenomenon occurs in humans. This type of inheritance does not involve gene mutations that change DNA sequence. Instead, it is thought that epigenetic changes in chromatin, such as DNA methylation and histone modification, occur. In this review, we will focus on one exciting new example of this phenomenon, transfer across generations of enhanced synaptic plasticity and memory formation induced by exposure to an "enriched" environment.
Sensory imprinting produces life-long attachment to environmental features experienced during a critical period of early development. Imprinting of this kind is highly conserved in evolution and is an important form of adaptive behavioral plasticity [1
• Lorenz K.
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]. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans undergoes such adaptation to new environments through imprinting: attractive odorants, when present during the first larval stage, produce life-long olfactory imprints that enhance attraction and egg-laying rates in the adults [2
• Remy J.J.
• Hobert O.
An interneuronal chemoreceptor required for olfactory imprinting in C. elegans.Science. 2005; 309: 787-790
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]. Here I report evidence that the olfactory imprint can be transmitted to the next generation. If the imprint is generated successively over more than four generations, it is not just transmitted through one further generation, but rather, it is stably inherited through many following generations. While the transient nature of the inheritance suggests the existence of resetting mechanisms, stable trans-generational inheritance of the kind reported here raises the possibility that a behavioral alteration produced by an environmental change might be genetically assimilated after a limited number of generations.
In a recent article in this journal, A. O. Vargas (2009. J Exp Zool B (Mol Dev Evol) 312:667-678) suggests to interpret the controversial midwife toad experiments of the early 20th century zoologist Paul Kammerer in the context of epigenetic inheritance. For information on Kammerer's work he resorts to a popular science book (Kammerer, '24. The Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics). However, the study of Kammerer's original publications reveals that there are substantial misunderstandings in Vargas' treatment of the subject. While Vargas' general idea-invoking epigenetic effects as an explanation of Kammerer's findings-remains attractive, at least two key aspects of his model need to be revised. Clarification of these issues is an important prerequisite for any experimental design with the aim to (dis)prove Kammerer and to establish a (potential) epigenetic basis of his observations about the mating behavior in midwife toads.
In a recent article in this journal, Alexander Vargas presents a new, epigenetic explanation of Paul Kammerer's controversial midwife toad experiments, but he has constructed his model without first reading Kammerer's original articles. A look at the articles shows that Vargas is seriously misinformed about what Kammerer did and what the results even were. His model simply cannot explain the results as they were originally reported and it cannot easily be corrected. Similarly, Vargas' historical inferences about the Kammerer affair, Kammerer's priority for the discovery of parent-of-origin effects, and the negative reactions of geneticists to this purported discovery, are unsupported and do not stand up to scrutiny.
"Here, I review the motivation and science behind efforts to characterize and manage ecosystems as capital assets. I then describe some recent work to evaluate the potential for sustaining biodiversity and ecosystem services in human-dominated landscapes"
Paramutation describes the transfer of an acquired epigenetic state to an unlinked homologous locus, resulting in a meiotically heritable alteration in gene expression. Early investigations of paramutation characterized a mode of change and inheritance distinct from mendelian genetics, catalyzing the concept of the epigenome. Numerous examples of paramutation and paramutation-like phenomena have now emerged, with evidence that implicates small RNAs in the transfer and maintenance of epigenetic states. In animals Piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA)-mediated retrotransposon suppression seems to drive a vast system of epigenetic inheritance with paramutation-like characteristics. The classic examples of paramutation might be merely informative aberrations of pervasive and broadly conserved mechanisms that use RNA to sense homology and target epigenetic modification. When viewed in this context, paramutation is only one aspect of a common and broadly distributed form of inheritance based on epigenetic states.