Origination of Organismal Form Beyond the Gene in Developmental and Evolutionary Biology

by Muller, Gerd B.; Newman, Stuart A.

• ISBN13: 9780262134194
• ISBN10: 0262134195
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-01-03
• Publisher: Bradford Books

Summary

The field of evolutionary biology arose from the desire to understand the origin and diversity of biological forms. In recent years, however, evolutionary genetics, with its focus on the modification and inheritance of presumed genetic programs, has all but overwhelmed other aspects of evolutionary biology. This has led to the neglect of the study of the generative origins of biological form. Drawing on work from developmental biology, paleontology, developmental and population genetics, cancer research, physics, and theoretical biology, this book explores the multiple factors responsible for the origination of biological form. It examines the essential problems of morphological evolution--why, for example, the basic body plans of nearly all metazoans arose within a relatively short time span, why similar morphological design motifs appear in phylogenetically independent lineages, and how new structural elements are added to the body plan of a given phylogenetic lineage. It also examines discordances between genetic and phenotypic change, the physical determinants of morphogenesis, and the role of epigenetic processes in evolution. The book discusses these and other topics within the framework of evolutionary developmental biology, a new research agenda that concerns the interaction of development and evolution in the generation of biological form. By placing epigenetic processes, rather than gene sequence and gene expression changes, at the center of morphological origination, this book points the way to a more comprehensive theory of evolution.

Author Biography

Gerd B. Müller, is Professor of Zoology and Head of the Department of Theoretical Biology at the University of Vienna and President of the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research.

Stuart Newman is Professor of Cell Biology and Anatomy at New York Medical College.

Table of Contents

Series Foreword	p. vii
Preface	p. ix
Introduction
Origination of Organismal Form: The Forgotten Cause in Evolutionary Theory	p. 3
Problems Of Morphological Evolution
The Cambrian "Explosion" of Metazoans	p. 13
Convergence and Homoplasy in the Evolution of Organismal Form	p. 33
Homology:The Evolution of Morphological Organization	p. 51
Relationships Between Genes And Form
Only Details Determine	p. 75
The Reactive Genome	p. 87
Tissue Specificity: Structural Cues Allow Diverse Phenotypes from a Constant Genotype	p. 103
Genes, Cell Behavior, and the Evolution of Form	p. 119
Physical Determinants Of Morphogenesis
Cell Adhesive Interactions and Tissue Self-Organization	p. 137
Gradients, Diffusion, and Genes in Pattern Formation	p. 165
A Biochemical Oscillator Linked to Vertebrate Segmentation	p. 183
Organization through Intra-Inter Dynamics	p. 195
From Physics to Development: The Evolution by Genetic Assimilation	p. 221
Origination And Evolvability
Phenotypic Plasticity and Evolution by Genetic Assimilation	p. 245
Genetic and Epigenetic Factors in the Origin of the Tetrapod Limb	p. 265
Epigenesis and Evolution of Brains: From Embryonic Divisions to Functional Systems	p. 287
Boundary Constraints for the Emergence of Form	p. 305
Contributors	p. 323
Index	p. 325
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