scholarly journals A role for epigenetic inheritance in modern evolutionary theory? A comment in response to Dickins and Rahman

2013 ◽  
Vol 280 (1771) ◽  
pp. 20130903 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine M. Suter ◽  
Dario Boffelli ◽  
David I. K. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Epigenetic Inheritance ◽  
Modern Evolutionary Theory

scholarly journals Non-genetic inheritance in evolutionary theory - the importance of plant studies

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Robertson ◽  
Christina Richards
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Epigenetic Inheritance ◽  
Causal Role ◽  
Epigenetic Variation ◽  
Epigenetic Mechanisms ◽  
Epigenetic Machinery ◽  
Evolutionary Studies ◽  
Modern Evolutionary Theory

AbstractEmerging evidence points to a causal role for epigenetic variation in evolution, but evolutionary biologists have been reluctant to incorporate epigenetics into modern evolutionary theory. Part of this ambivalence comes from the assumption that epigenetic inheritance is only relevant to the evolution of plants, which is perpetuated by a comparative lack of evolutionary studies in animals. However, although most of the evidence for epigenetic inheritance comes from plants, plants and animals share many homologous epigenetic mechanisms, and plants provide a more tractable system for investigating the causal role of epigenetic mechanisms underlying phenotypic variation and its relationship with fitness. The insights from studies of epigenetic inheritance in plants may be applicable across a broad range of taxa once we establish commonalities and differences in epigenetic machinery. In this paper we present evidence for a role of epigenetic mechanisms in the evolutionary process and discuss common objections to incorporating epigenetics into evolutionary theory. This review is not exhaustive, but is meant to demonstrate that epigenetic inheritance can be incorporated into current evolutionary theory without overhauling its foundations.

scholarly journals Evolutionary biology today and the call for an extended synthesis

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 20160145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas J. Futuyma
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Epigenetic Inheritance ◽  
Reaction Norm ◽  
Evolutionary Synthesis ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Extended Evolutionary Synthesis ◽  
Extended Synthesis ◽  
Proximate Causation

Evolutionary theory has been extended almost continually since the evolutionary synthesis (ES), but except for the much greater importance afforded genetic drift, the principal tenets of the ES have been strongly supported. Adaptations are attributable to the sorting of genetic variation by natural selection, which remains the only known cause of increase in fitness. Mutations are not adaptively directed, but as principal authors of the ES recognized, the material (structural) bases of biochemistry and development affect the variety of phenotypic variations that arise by mutation and recombination. Against this historical background, I analyse major propositions in the movement for an ‘extended evolutionary synthesis’. ‘Niche construction' is a new label for a wide variety of well-known phenomena, many of which have been extensively studied, but (as with every topic in evolutionary biology) some aspects may have been understudied. There is no reason to consider it a neglected ‘process’ of evolution. The proposition that phenotypic plasticity may engender new adaptive phenotypes that are later genetically assimilated or accommodated is theoretically plausible; it may be most likely when the new phenotype is not truly novel, but is instead a slight extension of a reaction norm already shaped by natural selection in similar environments. However, evolution in new environments often compensates for maladaptive plastic phenotypic responses. The union of population genetic theory with mechanistic understanding of developmental processes enables more complete understanding by joining ultimate and proximate causation; but the latter does not replace or invalidate the former. Newly discovered molecular phenomena have been easily accommodated in the past by elaborating orthodox evolutionary theory, and it appears that the same holds today for phenomena such as epigenetic inheritance. In several of these areas, empirical evidence is needed to evaluate enthusiastic speculation. Evolutionary theory will continue to be extended, but there is no sign that it requires emendation.

scholarly journals The Modern Evolutionary Theory

1996 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Mayr
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Modern Evolutionary Theory

The Evolution of Cultural Entities

2002 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Significant Role ◽  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Human Sciences ◽  
Research Traditions ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
Modern Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Cultural Entities

Ever since Charles Darwin, scholars have noted that cultural entities such as languages, laws, firms, and theories seem to ‘evolve’ through sequences of variation, selection and replication, in many ways just like living organisms. This book considers whether this comparison is ‘just a metaphor’, or whether modern evolutionary theory can help us to understand the dynamics of different cultural domains. The ‘evolutionary paradigm of rationality’ has a significant role to play throughout the human sciences, but raises complex issues in every cultural context where it is applied. By fostering discussion between scholars from a wide range of research traditions, this book aims to influence the evolution of all of them.

scholarly journals If ageing is a disease, then life is also a disease

2020 ◽  
Vol 83 (3) ◽  
pp. 307-315
Author(s):  
Piotr Paweł Chmielewski ◽  
Bartłomiej Strzelec
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Genetic Disease ◽  
Gene Mutations ◽  
Pathological Process ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Pleiotropic Gene ◽  
Genetically Determined ◽  
Modern Evolutionary Theory

AbstractAgeing is distinct from a disease. Sound arguments have been adduced to explain that senescence cannot be understood as a pathological process. Nevertheless, this distinction is believed to be artificial (Holliday 1995), and other eminent researchers argue that the senescence-pathology dichotomy is also misleading. Recently, it has been suggested that ageing should be classified as a complex pathological syndrome or a ‘pre-disease’ that is treatable. Proponents of this new paradigm argue that: (i) modern evolutionary theory predicts that ‘although organismal senescence is not an adaptation, it is genetically programmed’, (ii) ‘insofar as it is genetically determined, organismal senescence is a form of genetic disease’ (Janac et al. 2017) and (iii) ‘ageing is something very much like a genetic disease: it is a set of pathologies resulting from the action of pleiotropic gene mutations’ (Gems 2015). Also new generations of researchers, free of these traditional shackles, come with the belief that it is time to classify ageing as a disease, as the distinction between normal dysfunction and abnormal dysfunction is not completely clear and should be abandoned. Although they marshal their arguments in a convincing manner, persuasive counterarguments can be mounted. Here, the senescence-pathology dichotomy is critically discussed. A deeper analysis of this subject reveals the underlying problem of undefined terminology in science.

Essay Reviews

1979 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-106 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Psychological Development ◽  
Stage Theory ◽  
Half Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
Alive Today ◽  
Modern Evolutionary Theory

Beginning with research published in the 1920's, Jean Piaget's description of the development of cognition is a monumental achievement, the reason that he is one of the most influential psychologists alive today. During the past decade, increasing numbers of American educators have become interested in the implications of Piaget's work for the classroom. Early attempts at applying Piaget's theory to education were based on his theory of cognitive stages which had essentially been completed by the 1950's. Stage theory was, however,only a part of the task which Piaget had set for himself at the outset of his career, a model of psychological development firmly grounded in both modern evolutionary theory and in philosophy. Biology and Knowledge is the captstone of that effort, the result of nearly a half century of work attempting to link the two fields. This model—resting on the notion of a macrogenetic sequence of biological-epistemological structures—implies and suggests research on a complementary notion, the process of equilibration. This process has in fact been the focus of much of Piaget's research during the past decade.

scholarly journals There is no fitness but fitness, and the lineage is its bearer

2016 ◽  
Vol 371 (1687) ◽  
pp. 20150085 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erol Akçay ◽  
Jeremy Van Cleve
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Social Evolution ◽  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Inclusive Fitness Theory ◽  
Darwinian Fitness ◽  
Accurate Picture ◽  
Evolutionary Success ◽  
Social Environmental ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Modern Evolutionary Theory

Inclusive fitness has been the cornerstone of social evolution theory for more than a half-century and has matured as a mathematical theory in the past 20 years. Yet surprisingly for a theory so central to an entire field, some of its connections to evolutionary theory more broadly remain contentious or underappreciated. In this paper, we aim to emphasize the connection between inclusive fitness and modern evolutionary theory through the following fact: inclusive fitness is simply classical Darwinian fitness, averaged over social, environmental and demographic states that members of a gene lineage experience. Therefore, inclusive fitness is neither a generalization of classical fitness, nor does it belong exclusively to the individual. Rather, the lineage perspective emphasizes that evolutionary success is determined by the effect of selection on all biological and environmental contexts that a lineage may experience. We argue that this understanding of inclusive fitness based on gene lineages provides the most illuminating and accurate picture and avoids pitfalls in interpretation and empirical applications of inclusive fitness theory.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document