The Nature and Analysis of Phenotypic Transitions

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Jane West-Eberhard
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Adopted Children ◽  
Psychological Traits ◽  
Origin Of Species ◽  
Classical Mythology ◽  
Biological Parents ◽  
Novel Traits ◽  
Famous Book ◽  
The Common ◽  
Vertebrate Eye

Part II is about origins: how do new traits arise from old phenotypes? People of all ages are fascinated by the question of origins. Origins are the common concern of evolutionists and creationists, of ethnic historians, of Mormon geneologists and the Daughters of the American Revolution, of adopted children searching for their biological parents— indeed, of all who have wondered where Johnny got his patience, his sense of humor, or his big nose. Darwin was a clever publicist when he titled his most famous book The Origin of Species. He touched deep human chords by discussing not only the origin of species but the origin of marvellously complex morphological and psychological traits—specialized limbs, sexual behavior, intelligence, heroism, and the vertebrate eye, to mention just a few. Research on selection and adaptation may tell us why a trait persisted and spread, but it will not tell us where a trait came from. This is why evolutionary biology inevitably intersects with developmental biology, and why satisfactory explanations of ultimate (evolutionary) causation must always include both proximate causes and the study of selection. Novel traits originate via the transformation of ancestral phenotypes during development. This transformational aspect of evolutionary change has been oddly neglected in modern evolutionary biology, even though it is an integral part of human curiosity about origins in other fields. From classical mythology to modern-day childrens’ books, origins are explained in terms of transformations of the phenotype, alongside attention to developmental mechanisms and adaptive functions. Consider this excerpt from The Apeman’s Secret (Dixon, 1980), a Hardy Boys adventure book: . . . [T]he Apeman hated cruelty of any kind. Whenever he saw crooks or villians do something nasty to a helpless victim, he would fly into a rage. This would change his body chemistry and cause him to revert to the savage state. . . .

scholarly journals The Enigma of Darwin Diagram

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miloje M. Rakocevic
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Genetic Code ◽  
Origin Of Species ◽  
Logical Square ◽  
Famous Book ◽  
The One ◽  
First Time ◽  
Direct Inspection

According to my best knowledge, for the first time here is presented a hypothesis, that the one and only "accompanying diagram" in Darwin's famous book On the Origin of Species contains, may be, a hidden code. Direct inspection reveals that the Diagram, viewed as built of four parts [(two upper and two lower / two left and two right); (two with more and two with less branches / two with multiple and two with single branches)], corresponds to the logical square of the genetic code. When, however, viewed as built of two parts (upper and lower), then it corresponds with Shcherbak’s diagram (Shcherbak, 1993, 1994) of four-codon and non-four-codon amino acids (AAs); not only by the form but also by the number of elementary quantities. [This version was storing 2015.01.06. on my website; the first one, under the title "The Darwin (hidden) code" at 2014.10.12.]

scholarly journals Hukum Waris terhadap Anak Adopsi dalam Perspektif Islam

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-106
Author(s):  
Muhammad Lutfi Syarifuddin
Keyword(s):  
Child Protection ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Adoptive Parents ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Best Interests ◽  
Adopted Children ◽  
Inheritance Law ◽  
Law System ◽  
Biological Parents ◽  
The Family

In practice, in Indonesia children adoption has become a public phenomenon in society and is part of the family law system because it involves individual interests in the family. In the case of adoption, parents need to pay attention to the best interests of the child and be implemented based on local customs, applicable laws and regulations, this has been regulated in Article 39 of the Child Protection Act. Adoption of children is divided into two types, namely adoption of children between Indonesian citizens (domestic adoption) and adoption of Indonesian citizens by foreign citizens (adoption between countries). Appointment of children must be done by legal process, through the establishment or decision of the Court. The research method is normative juridical research. Based on the research results, the inheritance Indonesian citizens rights in the Indonesian inheritance law case are implemented based on Islamic law, adopted children do not inherit from adoptive parents and remain the biological parents. Under customary law, the inheritance of adopted children depends on customary law in the area. By law adoption children do not inherit from adoptive parents, and adopted children remain the heirs of their biological parents.

A CYC-RAD-DIV-DRIF interaction likely pre-dates the origin of floral monosymmetry in Lamiales

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aniket Sengupta ◽  
Lena C. Hileman
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Tomato Fruit ◽  
Regulatory Interaction ◽  
En Bloc ◽  
Regulatory Interactions ◽  
Developmental Program ◽  
Novel Traits ◽  
Carpel Development ◽  
Outstanding Question

Abstract BackgroundAn outstanding question in evolutionary biology is how genetic interactions defining novel traits evolve. They may evolve either by de novo assembly of previously non-interacting genes or by en bloc co-option of interactions from other functions. We tested these hypotheses in the context of a novel phenotype—Lamiales flower monosymmetry—defined by a developmental program that relies on regulatory interaction among CYCLOIDEA , RADIALIS , DIVARICATA , and DRIF gene products. In Antirrhinum majus (snapdragon), representing Lamiales, we tested whether components of this program likely function beyond their previously known role in petal and stamen development. In Solanum lycopersicum (tomato), representing Solanales which diverged from Lamiales before the origin of Lamiales floral monosymmetry, we additionally tested for regulatory interactions in this program. ResultsWe found that RADIALIS , DIVARICATA , and DRIF are expressed in snapdragon ovaries and developing fruit, similar to their homologs during tomato fruit development. Additionally, we found that a tomato CYCLOIDEA ortholog positively regulates a tomato RADIALIS ortholog. ConclusionOur results provide preliminary support to the hypothesis that the developmental program defining floral monosymmetry in Lamiales was co-opted en bloc from a function in carpel development. This expands our understanding of novel trait evolution facilitated by co-option of existing regulatory interactions.

Plant-Herbivore Interactions

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
May Berenbaum
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Evolutionary Change ◽  
The Other ◽  
Origin Of Species ◽  
Interacting Species ◽  
Single Host ◽  
External Conditions ◽  
Clear Insight ◽  
Plant Herbivore

As is the case with most supposedly modern concepts in evolutionary biology, the idea of coevolution, or reciprocal evolutionary change between interacting species, actually goes back to Charles Darwin. In the introduction to The Origin of Species (1859), he wrote: …In considering the Origin of Species, it is quite conceivable that a naturalist, reflecting on the mutual affinities of organic beings, on their embryological relations, their geographical distribution, geological succession, and other such facts, might come to the conclusion that species had not been independently created, but had descended, like varieties, from other species. Nevertheless, such a conclusion, even if wellfounded, would be unsatisfactory, until it could be shown how the innumerable species inhabiting this world have been modified, so as to acquire that perfection of structure and coadaptation which justly excites our admiration. It is, therefore, of the highest importance to gain a clear insight into the means of modification and coadaptation…. Early on, then, Darwin pointed out the importance of interactions among organisms in determining evolutionary change, as opposed to “external conditions such as climate, food,” or even “the volition” of the organism itself. Interactions among organisms, however, take many forms. Antagonistic interactions, in which one species benefits and the other is harmed, are themselves diverse. Among those interactions in which both species are animals, the gamut runs from predation, in which one species kills and consumes several individuals of the other species during its lifetime, to parasitism, in which one species merely saps the “reserves” and rarely kills its host. Intermediate and unique to the phylum Arthropoda is parasitoidism, in which one species kills its prey, as does a predator, but, like a parasite, is normally restricted to a single host individual. A comparable continuum exists for interactions between an animal and a plant species; these associations are usually referred to as forms of herbivory (with parasitoidism akin to internal seed feeders of plants). In mutualistic interactions, both species benefit from the interaction. Mutualisms can involve interactions between animals and plants, generally in which a food reward from the plant is exchanged for mobility provided by the animal partner.

The Toddler, the Second Adoption, Telling Children About Adoption

2016 ◽  
pp. 111-112
Author(s):  
Donald W. Winnicott
Keyword(s):  
Selection Procedure ◽  
Adoptive Parents ◽  
Adopted Children ◽  
Adopted Child ◽  
First Child ◽  
Biological Parents

In this essay Winnicott discusses the psychology of adoption for parents and child. He writes that it is important to be truthful when talking to adopted children about where they come from, that the adoptive parents are not their biological parents, and that the child was made by nature, and not by magic. If the truth cannot be borne by the adoptive parents, it is very difficult for the adopted child to cope with it. He also considers that adoptive parents wanting a second adoption must go through the selection procedure and other anxieties about choosing to have the adoption, rather than being able to have a child, as it were, normally ‘by accident’. When a mother conceives a second baby, the first child has the experience of mother growing larger over a period of months unlike the case of a second adopted baby that just ‘appears’.

Compassionate, safe and rigorous child protection practice with biological parents of adopted children

2007 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 108-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Turnell ◽  
Sharon Elliott ◽  
Viv Hogg
Keyword(s):  
Child Protection ◽  
Adopted Children ◽  
Biological Parents

Ecology as Text, Text as Ecology

2010 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Morton
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Origin Of Species

The further scholarship investigates life forms (ecology, evolutionary biology and microbiology) the less those forms can be said to have a single, independent and lasting identity. The further scholarship delves into texts (deconstruction) the less they too can be said to have a single, independent and lasting identity. This similarity is not simply an analogy. Life forms cannot be said to differ in a rigorous way from texts. On many levels and for many reasons, deconstruction and ecology should talk to one another. It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent on each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us. (Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, 395–396)

Nature, Nurture, and Cognitive Development from 1 to 16 Years: A Parent-Offspring Adoption Study

1997 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 442-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Plomin ◽  
David W. Fulker ◽  
Robin Corley ◽  
John C DeFries
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Development ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Middle Childhood ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Verbal Ability ◽  
Adoptive Parents ◽  
Childhood And Adolescence ◽  
Adopted Children ◽  
Adoption Study ◽  
Biological Parents

Children increasingly resemble their parents in cognitive abilities from infancy through adolescence Results obtained from a 20-year longitudinal adoption study of 245 adopted children and their biological and adoptive parents, as well as 245 matched nonadoptive (control) parents and offspring, show that this increasing resemblance is due to genetic factors Adopted children resemble their adoptive parents slightly in early childhood but not at all in middle childhood or adolescence In contrast, during childhood and adolescence, adopted children become more like their biological parents, and to the same degree as children and parents in control families Although these results were strongest for general cognitive ability and verbal ability similar results were found for other specific cognitive abilities—spatial ability, speed of processing, and recognition memory These findings indicate that within this population, genes that stably affect cognitive abilities in adulthood do not all come into play until adolescence and that environmental factors that contribute to cognitive development are not correlated with parents' cognitive ability

scholarly journals Sex and Speciation: Drosophila Reproductive Tract Proteins— Twenty Five Years Later

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rama Singh ◽  
Santosh Jagadeeshan
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Reproductive Tract ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Molecular Genetic ◽  
Rapid Evolution ◽  
2D Electrophoresis ◽  
Large Area ◽  
Genomic Studies ◽  
Molecular Genetic Variation ◽  
The Common

The protein electrophoresis revolution, nearly fifty years ago, provided the first glimpse into the nature of molecular genetic variation within and between species and showed that the amount of genetic differences between newly arisen species was minimal. Twenty years later, 2D electrophoresis showed that, in contrast to general gene-enzyme variation, reproductive tract proteins were less polymorphic within species but highly diverged between species. The 2D results were interesting and revolutionary, but somewhat uninterpretable because, at the time, rapid evolution and selective sweeps were not yet part of the common vocabulary of evolutionary biologists. Since then, genomic studies of sex and reproduction-related (SRR) genes have grown rapidly into a large area of research in evolutionary biology and are shedding light on a number of phenomena. Here we review some of the major and current fields of research that have greatly contributed to our understanding of the evolutionary dynamics and importance of SRR genes and genetic systems in understanding reproductive biology and speciation.

Why Cooperate?

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas N. Sherratt ◽  
David M. Wilkinson
Keyword(s):  
Kin Selection ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Selfish Gene ◽  
The Social ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The World ◽  
Vampire Bats ◽  
The Common

An altruistic act is one in which an individual incurs a cost that results in a benefit to others. Giving money or time to those less fortunate than ourselves is one example, as is giving up one’s seat on a bus. At first, one might consider such behaviour hopelessly naive in a world in which natural selection seemingly rewards selfishness in the competitive struggle for existence. As the saying goes, ‘nice guys finish last’. Yet examples of apparent altruism are commonplace. Meerkats will spend hours in the baking sun keeping lookout for predators that might attack their colony mates. Vampire bats will regurgitate blood to feed their starving roost fellows, while baboons will take the time and effort to groom other baboons. Some individuals, such as honeybee workers, forego their own reproduction to help their queen and will even die in her defence. The common gut bacterium Escherichia coli commits suicide when it is infected by a bacteriophage, thereby protecting its clones from being infected. If helping incurs a cost, then surely an individual that accepts a cooperative act yet gives nothing in return would do better than cooperators? What, then, allows these cases of apparent altruism to persist? In his last presidential address to the Royal Society of London in November 2005, Robert M. May argued, ‘The most important unanswered question in evolutionary biology, and more generally in the social sciences, is how cooperative behaviour evolved and can be maintained’. In this chapter, we document a number of examples of cooperation in the natural world and ask how it is maintained despite the obvious evolutionary pressure to ‘cheat’. We will see that, while it is tempting to see societies as some form of higher organism, to fully understand cooperation, it helps to take a more reductionist view of the world, frequently a gene-centred perspective. Indeed, thinking about altruism has led to one of the greatest triumphs of the ‘selfish gene’ approach, namely the theory of kin selection. Ultimately, as the quote from Mandeville indicates, we will see that cooperation frequently arises simply out of pure self-interest—it just so happens that individuals (or, more precisely, genes) in the business of helping themselves sometimes help others.

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