‘Synergistic selection’: a cooperative model of evolution

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Abstract

Many developments over the past few decades have undermined the central tenets of the so-called ‘Modern Synthesis’ in evolutionary biology—including its narrow focus on genetic mutations and other molecular level factors as a prime source of innovation in evolution and a deeply competitive model of biological change. It is now apparent that cooperative (synergistic) effects of various kinds, at all ‘levels’ of living systems, have played a major causal role in shaping the overall trajectory of life on Earth, and that living systems themselves have been purposeful participants (‘agents’) and co-developers in this process.

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Developmental Plasticity and Evolution

Mary West-Eberhard (2003)

The first comprehensive synthesis on development and evolution: it applies to all aspects of development, at all levels of organization and in all organisms, taking advantage of modern findings on behavior, genetics, endocrinology, molecular biology, evolutionary theory and phylogenetics to show the connections between developmental mechanisms and evolutionary change. This book solves key problems that have impeded a definitive synthesis in the past. It uses new concepts and specific examples to show how to relate environmentally sensitive development to the genetic theory of adaptive evolution and to explain major patterns of change. In this book development includes not only embryology and the ontogeny of morphology, sometimes portrayed inadequately as governed by "regulatory genes," but also behavioral development and physiological adaptation, where plasticity is mediated by genetically complex mechanisms like hormones and learning. The book shows how the universal qualities of phenotypes--modular organization and plasticity--facilitate both integration and change. Here you will learn why it is wrong to describe organisms as genetically programmed; why environmental induction is likely to be more important in evolution than random mutation; and why it is crucial to consider both selection and developmental mechanism in explanations of adaptive evolution. This book satisfies the need for a truly general book on development, plasticity and evolution that applies to living organisms in all of their life stages and environments. Using an immense compendium of examples on many kinds of organisms, from viruses and bacteria to higher plants and animals, it shows how the phenotype is reorganized during evolution to produce novelties, and how alternative phenotypes occupy a pivotal role as a phase of evolution that fosters diversification and speeds change. The arguments of this book call for a new view of the major themes of evolutionary biology, as shown in chapters on gradualism, homology, environmental induction, speciation, radiation, macroevolution, punctuation, and the maintenance of sex. No other treatment of development and evolution since Darwin's offers such a comprehensive and critical discussion of the relevant issues. Developmental Plasticity and Evolution is designed for biologists interested in the development and evolution of behavior, life-history patterns, ecology, physiology, morphology and speciation. It will also appeal to evolutionary paleontologists, anthropologists, psychologists, and teachers of general biology.

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Developmental plasticity and the origin of species differences.

Mary West-Eberhard (2005)

Speciation is the origin of reproductive isolation and divergence between populations, according to the "biological species concept" of Mayr. Studies of reproductive isolation have dominated research on speciation, leaving the origin of species differences relatively poorly understood. Here, I argue that the origin of species differences, and of novel phenotypes in general, involves the reorganization of ancestral phenotypes (developmental recombination) followed by the genetic accommodation of change. Because selection acts on phenotypes, not directly on genotypes or genes, novel traits can originate by environmental induction as well as mutation, then undergo selection and genetic accommodation fueled by standing genetic variation or by subsequent mutation and genetic recombination. Insofar as phenotypic novelties arise from adaptive developmental plasticity, they are not "random" variants, because their initial form reflects adaptive responses with an evolutionary history, even though they are initiated by mutations or novel environmental factors that are random with respect to (future) adaptation. Change in trait frequency involves genetic accommodation of the threshold or liability for expression of a novel trait, a process that follows rather than directs phenotypic change. Contrary to common belief, environmentally initiated novelties may have greater evolutionary potential than mutationally induced ones. Thus, genes are probably more often followers than leaders in evolutionary change. Species differences can originate before reproductive isolation and contribute to the process of speciation itself. Therefore, the genetics of speciation can profit from studies of changes in gene expression as well as changes in gene frequency and genetic isolation.

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Does evolutionary theory need a rethink?

Kevin N. Laland, Tobias Uller, Sheldon Marc Feldman … (2014)

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Author and article information

Journal

Title: Biological Journal of the Linnean Society

Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)

ISSN (Print): 0024-4066

ISSN (Electronic): 1095-8312

Publication date Created: September 01 2023

Publication date Created: July 18 2023

Publication date Other: September 01 2023

Publication date (Print): September 01 2023

Publication date (Electronic): July 18 2023

Volume: 140

Issue: 1

Pages: 149-155

Article

DOI: 10.1093/biolinnean/blad025

SO-VID: b074d443-f9a1-4f34-a9bb-66382cd35274

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https://academic.oup.com/pages/standard-publication-reuse-rights

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