Evolutionary biology: Difference between revisions

Content deleted Content added

Inline

Revision as of 01:46, 10 December 2011

Evolutionary biology is a sub-field of biology concerned with the origin of species from a common descent and descent of species, as well as their change, multiplication and diversity over time. Someone who studies evolutionary biology is known as an evolutionary biologist. To philosopher Kim Sterelny, "the development of evolutionary biology since 1858 is one of the great intellectual achievements of science".^[1]

Description

Evolutionary biology is an interdisciplinary field, in that it includes scientists from a wide range of both field and lab oriented disciplines. For example, it generally includes scientists who may have a specialist training in particular organisms such as mammalogy, ornithology, or herpetology, but use those organisms as case studies to answer general questions in evolution. It also generally includes paleontologists and geologists who use fossils to answer questions about the tempo and mode of evolution, as well as theoreticians in areas such as population genetics and evolutionary psychology. Experimentalists have used selection in Drosophila to develop an understanding of the evolution of aging, and experimental evolution is a very active subdiscipline.

In the 1990s developmental biology made a re-entry into evolutionary biology, from its initial exclusion from the modern synthesis, through the study of evolutionary developmental biology.

Findings from evolutionary biology feed strongly into new disciplines that study mankind's sociocultural evolution and evolutionary behavior. Evolutionary biology's frameworks of ideas and conceptual tools are now finding application in the study of a range of subjects from computing to nanotechnology. It also contributes to the field of evolutionary medicine.^[2]^[3]

Artificial life is a sub-field of bioinformatics that attempts to model, or even recreate, the evolution of organisms as described by evolutionary biology. Usually this is done through mathematics and computer models.

History

Evolutionary biology as an academic discipline in its own right emerged as a result of the modern evolutionary synthesis in the 1930s and 1940s.^[4] It was not until the 1970s and 1980s, however, that a significant number of universities had departments that specifically included the term evolutionary biology in their titles. In the United States, as a result of the rapid growth of molecular and cell biology, many universities have split (or aggregated) their biology departments into molecular and cell biology-style departments and ecology and evolutionary biology-style departments (which often have subsumed older departments in paleontology, zoology and the like).

Microbiology has recently developed into an evolutionary discipline. It was originally ignored due to the paucity of morphological traits and the lack of a species concept in microbiology. Now, evolutionary researchers are taking advantage of our extensive understanding of microbial physiology, the ease of microbial genomics, and the quick generation time of some microbes to answer evolutionary questions. Similar features have led to progress in viral evolution, particularly for bacteriophages.

Current research

Current research in evolutionary biology covers diverse topics, as should be expected given the centrality of evolution to understanding biology. Modern evolutionary biology incorporates ideas from diverse areas of science, such as molecular genetics and even computer science.

First, some fields of evolutionary research try to explain phenomena that were poorly accounted for by the work of the modern evolutionary synthesis. These phenomena include speciation^[5], the evolution of sexual reproduction^[6], the evolution of cooperation, the evolution of ageing, and evolvability^[7].

Second, biologists ask the most straightforward evolutionary question: "what happened and when?". This includes fields such as paleobiology, as well as systematics and phylogenetics.

Third, the modern evolutionary synthesis was devised at a time when nobody understood the molecular basis of genes. Today, evolutionary biologists try to determine the genetic architecture of interesting evolutionary phenomena such as adaptation and speciation. They seek answers to questions such as how many genes are involved, how large are the effects of each gene, to what extent are the effects of different genes interdependent, what sort of function do the genes involved tend to have, and what sort of changes tend to happen to them (e.g. point mutations vs. gene duplication or even genome duplication). Evolutionary biologists try to reconcile the high heritability seen in twin studies with the difficulty in finding which genes are responsible for this heritability using genome-wide association studies.^[8]

One challenge in studying genetic architecture is that the classical population genetics that catalyzed the modern evolutionary synthesis needs to be updated to take into account modern molecular knowledge. This requires a great deal of mathematical development, in order to relate DNA sequence data to evolutionary theory as part of a theory of molecular evolution. For example, biologists try to infer which genes have been under strong selection by detecting selective sweeps.^[9]

Fourth, the modern evolutionary synthesis involved agreement about which forces contribute to evolution, but not about their relative importance.^[10] Current research seeks to determine this. Evolutionary forces include natural selection, sexual selection, genetic drift, genetic draft, developmental constraints, mutation bias and biogeography.

An evolutionary approach is also key to much current research in biology that does not set out to study evolution per se, especially in organismal biology and ecology. For example, evolutionary thinking is key to life history theory. Annotation of genes and their function relies heavily on comparative, i.e. evolutionary, approaches. The field of evo-devo investigates how developmental processes work by using the comparative method to determine how they evolved.

Notable evolutionary biologists

Notable contributors to evolutionary biology

Evolutionary biologists known for their science popularization

Notable popularizers of evolution whose research isn't primarily concerned with evolutionary biology

Bibliography

Textbooks

Douglas J. Futuyma, Evolutionary Biology (3rd Edition), Sinauer Associates (1998) ISBN 0-87893-189-9
Douglas J. Futuyma, Evolution, Sinauer Associates (2005) ISBN 0-87893-187-2
Mark Ridley, Evolution (3rd edition), Blackwell (2003) ISBN 1-4051-0345-0
Scott R. Freeman and Jon C. Herron, Evolutionary Analysis, Prentice Hall (2003) ISBN 0-13-101859-0
Michael R. Rose and Laurence D. Mueller, Evolution and Ecology of the Organism, Prentice Hall (2005) ISBN 0-13-010404-3
Monroe W. Strickberger, Evolution (3rd Edition), Jones & Bartlett Publishers (2000) ISBN 0-7637-1066-0

Notable monographs and other works

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1809) Philosophie Zoologique
Charles Darwin (1859) The Origin of Species
Charles Darwin (1871) The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex
R. A. Fisher (1930) The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection
J. B. S. Haldane (1932) The Causes of Evolution
Ernst Mayr (1941) Systematics and the Origin of Species
Conrad Hal Waddington (1957) The Strategy of the Genes
Susumu Ohno (1970) Evolution by gene duplication
Richard Dawkins (1976) The Selfish Gene
Richard Dawkins (2004) The Ancestor's Tale
John Maynard Smith (1982) Evolution and the Theory of Games
Motoo Kimura (1983) The Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution
Stephen Jay Gould (2002) The Structure of Evolutionary Theory

Topics in evolutionary biology

Relationship to other biological disciplines

Template:Structure of evolutionary biology

References

^ Sterelny, K. (2009). "Philosophy of Evolutionary Thought". Evolution: The First Four Billion Years. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. p. 313. ISBN 978-0-674-03175-3. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help)
^ Evolution and Healing: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine. London: Phoenix. 1996. ISBN 1-85799-506-6. {{cite book}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |authors= (help)
^ Antolin, M.F. (2009). "Evolutionary Biology of Disease and Darwinian Medicine". Evolution: The First Four Billion Years. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. pp. 281–298. ISBN 978-0-674-03175-3. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help)
^ Sterelny (2009) p.314
^ "What is speciation and how should we study it?". American Naturalist. 163 (6): 914–923. 2004. doi:10.1086/386552. {{cite journal}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |authors= (help)
^ "The evolutionary enigma of sex". American Naturalist. 174 (s1): S1–S14. 2009. doi:10.1086/599084. {{cite journal}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |authors= (help)
^ "Evolvability as the proper focus of evolutionary developmental biology". Evolution & Development. 9 (4): 393–401. 2007. doi:10.1111/j.1525-142X.2007.00176.x. {{cite journal}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |authors= (help)
^ "Finding the missing heritability of complex diseases". Nature. 461 (7265): 747–753. 2009. doi:10.1038/nature08494. {{cite journal}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |authors= (help)
^ "Detecting recent positive selection in the human genome from haplotype structure". Nature. 419 (6909): 832–837. 2002. doi:10.1038/nature01140. PMID 12397357. {{cite journal}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |authors= (help)
^ "Progress in evolution and meaning in life". Evolutionary progress. University of Chicago Press. 1988. pp. 49–79. {{cite book}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |authors= (help)

[sterelny2009-1] Sterelny, K. (2009). "Philosophy of Evolutionary Thought". Evolution: The First Four Billion Years. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. p. 313. ISBN 978-0-674-03175-3. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help)

[Nesse&Williams-2] Evolution and Healing: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine. London: Phoenix. 1996. ISBN 1-85799-506-6. {{cite book}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |authors= (help)

[Antolin-3] Antolin, M.F. (2009). "Evolutionary Biology of Disease and Darwinian Medicine". Evolution: The First Four Billion Years. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. pp. 281–298. ISBN 978-0-674-03175-3. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help)

[evolutionthe1st4billionyears314-4] Sterelny (2009) p.314

[5] "What is speciation and how should we study it?". American Naturalist. 163 (6): 914–923. 2004. doi:10.1086/386552. {{cite journal}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |authors= (help)

[6] "The evolutionary enigma of sex". American Naturalist. 174 (s1): S1–S14. 2009. doi:10.1086/599084. {{cite journal}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |authors= (help)

[7] "Evolvability as the proper focus of evolutionary developmental biology". Evolution & Development. 9 (4): 393–401. 2007. doi:10.1111/j.1525-142X.2007.00176.x. {{cite journal}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |authors= (help)

[8] "Finding the missing heritability of complex diseases". Nature. 461 (7265): 747–753. 2009. doi:10.1038/nature08494. {{cite journal}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |authors= (help)

[9] "Detecting recent positive selection in the human genome from haplotype structure". Nature. 419 (6909): 832–837. 2002. doi:10.1038/nature01140. PMID 12397357. {{cite journal}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |authors= (help)

[10] "Progress in evolution and meaning in life". Evolutionary progress. University of Chicago Press. 1988. pp. 49–79. {{cite book}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |authors= (help)

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

v t e Evolutionary biology
Introduction Outline Timeline of evolution History of life Index
Evolution	Abiogenesis Adaptation Adaptive radiation Altruism Cheating Reciprocal Baldwin effect Cladistics Coevolution Mutualism Common descent Convergence Divergence Earliest known life forms Evidence of evolution Evolutionary arms race Evolutionary pressure Exaptation Extinction Event Homology Last universal common ancestor Macroevolution Microevolution Mismatch Non-adaptive radiation Origin of life Panspermia Parallel evolution Signalling theory Handicap principle Speciation Species Species complex Taxonomy Unit of selection Gene-centered view of evolution
Population genetics	Artificial selection Biodiversity Evolutionarily stable strategy Fisher's principle Fitness Inclusive Gene flow Genetic drift Kin selection Parental investment Parent–offspring conflict Mutation Population Natural selection Sexual dimorphism Sexual selection Mate choice Social selection Trivers–Willard hypothesis Variation
Development	Canalisation Evolutionary developmental biology Genetic assimilation Inversion Modularity Phenotypic plasticity
Of taxa	Bacteria Birds origin Brachiopods Molluscs Cephalopods Dinosaurs Fish Fungi Insects butterflies Life Mammals cats canids wolves dogs hyenas dolphins and whales horses Kangaroos primates humans lemurs sea cows Plants pollinator-mediated Reptiles Spiders Tetrapods Viruses
Of organs	Cell DNA Flagella Eukaryotes symbiogenesis chromosome endomembrane system mitochondria nucleus plastids In animals eye hair auditory ossicle nervous system brain
Of processes	Aging Death Programmed cell death Avian flight Biological complexity Cooperation Color vision in primates Emotion Empathy Ethics Eusociality Immune system Metabolism Monogamy Morality Mosaic evolution Multicellularity Sexual reproduction Gamete differentiation/sexes Life cycles/nuclear phases Mating types Meiosis Sex-determination Snake venom
Tempo and modes	Gradualism/Punctuated equilibrium/Saltationism Micromutation/Macromutation Uniformitarianism/Catastrophism
Speciation	Allopatric Anagenesis Catagenesis Cladogenesis Cospeciation Ecological Hybrid Non-ecological Parapatric Peripatric Reinforcement Sympatric
History	Renaissance and Enlightenment Transmutation of species David Hume Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion Charles Darwin On the Origin of Species History of paleontology Transitional fossil Blending inheritance Mendelian inheritance The eclipse of Darwinism Neo-Darwinism Modern synthesis History of molecular evolution Extended evolutionary synthesis
Philosophy	Darwinism Alternatives Catastrophism Lamarckism Orthogenesis Mutationism Saltationism Structuralism Spandrel Theistic Vitalism Teleology in biology
Related	Biogeography Ecological genetics Evolutionary medicine Group selection Cultural evolution Cultural group selection Dual inheritance theory Hologenome theory of evolution Missing heritability problem Molecular evolution Astrobiology Phylogenetics Tree Polymorphism Protocell Systematics Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance
Category Portal