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The availability of genomic blueprints for hundreds of species has led to a transformation in biology, encouraging the proliferation of adaptive arguments for the evolution of genomic features. This text explains why the details matter and presents a framework for how the architectural diversity of eukaryotic genomes and genes came to arise.
Wie bereits in früheren Büchern (BA 12/87, 12/94, 12/96) befaßt sich der Autor mit Themen der Evolution auf der Grundlage der von Darwin entwickelten Erkenntnisse. Dawkins veranschaulicht die weitgehend rätselhafte Dynamik der Entwicklung des Lebens im Wechselspiel von Mutation und Selektion, von egoistischem Eigeninteresse und altruistischer Selbstbeschränkung der Organismen, - eine Dynamik, die sich häufig rationalistischer Logik entzieht, weil die großen Zeitdimensionen menschliches Vorstellungsvermögen übersteigt. An Hand detaillierter Fakten belegt er, daß äußerst komplexe und raffinierte Evolutionsleistungen nicht das Ergebnis kalkulierter Planung und Berechnung sind, sondern daß sie wahrscheinlich ohne gestaltete Absicht zu stande kommen. Das Buch hat nicht mehr die aktuelle Brisanz seines weithin bekannten und aufsehenerregenden Titels "Das egoistische Gen" (BA 12/94), es überzeugt aber wieder auf Grund seiner biologisch fundierten, schlüssigen Argumentationsweise und seiner methaphernreichen, stilistisch effektvollen Darstellung. - Für viele Bibliotheken. (2)
Stuart Kauffman here presents a brilliant new paradigm for evolutionary biology, one that extends the basic concepts of Darwinian evolution to accommodate recent findings and perspectives from the fields of biology, physics, chemistry and mathematics. The book drives to the heart of the exciting debate on the origins of life and maintenance of order in complex biological systems. It focuses on the concept of self-organization: the spontaneous emergence of order that is widely observed throughout nature Kauffman argues that self-organization plays an important role in the Darwinian process of natural selection. Yet until now no systematic effort has been made to incorporate the concept of self-organization into evolutionary theory. The construction requirements which permit complex systems to adapt are poorly understood, as is the extent to which selection itself can yield systems able to adapt more successfully. This book explores these themes. It shows how complex systems, contrary to expectations, can spontaneously exhibit stunning degrees of order, and how this order, in turn, is essential for understanding the emergence and development of life on Earth. Topics include the new biotechnology of applied molecular evolution, with its important implications for developing new drugs and vaccines; the balance between order and chaos observed in many naturally occurring systems; new insights concerning the predictive power of statistical mechanics in biology; and other major issues. Indeed, the approaches investigated here may prove to be the new center around which biological science itself will evolve. The work is written for all those interested in the cutting edge of research in the life sciences.
Nutzpflanzen.
This eBook presents all 10 articles published under the Frontiers Research Topic "Evolutionary Feedbacks Between Population Biology and Genome Architecture", edited by Scott V. Edwards and Tariq Ezaz. With the rise of rapid genome sequencing across the Tree of Life, challenges arise in understanding the major evolutionary forces influencing the structure of microbial and eukaryotic genomes, in particular the prevalence of natural selection versus genetic drift in shaping those genomes. Additional complexities in understanding genome architecture arise with the increasing incidence of interspecific hybridization as a force for shaping genotypes and phenotypes. A key paradigm shift facilitating a more nuanced interpretation of genomes came with the rise of the nearly neutral theory in the 1970s, followed by a greater appreciation for the contribution of nonadaptive forces such as genetic drift to genome structure in the 1990s and 2000s. The articles published in this eBook grapple with these issues and provide an update as to the ways in which modern population genetics and genome informatics deepen our understanding of the subtle interplay between these myriad forces. From intraspecific to macroevolutionary studies, population biology and population genetics are now major tools for understanding the broad landscape of how genomes evolve across the Tree of Life. This volume is a celebration across diverse taxa of the contributions of population genetics thinking to genome studies. We hope it spurs additional research and clarity in the ongoing search for rules governing the evolution of genomes.
