<Emphasis Type="Italic">Jeewanu,</Emphasis> or the ‘particles of life’

Starting in the 1960s, the Indian chemist Krishna Bahadur, from the University of Allahabad, published on organic and inorganic particles that he had synthesized and baptized ‘Jeewanu’, or ‘particle of life’. Bahadur conceived of the Jeewanu as a simple form of the living. These studies are presented in a historical perspective and positioned within mid-20th century research on the origin of life, notably the so-called ‘coacervate theory’ of the Soviet biochemist Aleksandr I Oparin. The concepts of life proposed by Bahadur, Oparin and others are discussed from a historical standpoint.     

“A Great Complication of Circumstances” – Darwin and the Economy of Nature

In 1749, Linnaeus presided over the dissertation “Oeconomia Naturae,” which argued that each creature plays an important and particular role in nature’s economy. This phrase should be familiar to readers of Darwin, for he claims in the Origin that “all organic beings are striving, it may be said, to seize on each place in the economy of nature.” Many scholars have discussed the influence of political economy on Darwin’s ideas. In this paper, I take a different tack, showing that Darwin’s idea of an economy of nature stemmed from the views of earlier naturalists like Linnaeus and Lyell. I argue, in the first section of the paper, that Linnaeus’ idea of oeconomia naturae is derived from the idea of the animal economy, and that his idea of politia naturae is an extension of the idea of a politia civitatis. In the second part, I explore the use of the concept of stations in the work of De Candolle and Lyell – the precursor to Darwin’s concept of places. I show in the third part of the paper that the idea of places in an economy of nature is employed by Darwin at many key points in his thinking: his discussion of the Galapagos birds, his reading of Malthus, etc. Finally, in the last section, I demonstrate that the idea of a place in nature’s economy is essential to Darwin’s account of divergence. To tell his famous story of divergence and adaptation, Darwin needed the economy of nature.     

��Unfit for Life��: A Case Study of Protector-Protected Analogies in Recent Advocacy of Eugenics and Coercive Genetic Discrimination

This paper utilizes Iris Marion Young’s critical, post-9/11 reading of Thomas Hobbes, “as a theorist of authoritarian government grounded in fear of threat” (Young 2003). Applying Young’s reading of Hobbes to the high-profile ethicist Julian Savulescu’s advocacy of genetic enhancement reveals an underlying unjust discrimination in Savulescu’s use of patriarchal protector–protected analogies between family and state. First, the paper shows how Savulescu’s concept of procreative beneficence, in which parents use genetic selection to have children who will have the “best lives” possible, is unjustly discriminatory against marginalized groups. Increasingly, however, he has invoked public security to justify genetic interventions. In recent speeches, Savulescu has argued a global state of emergency is developing due to a combination of the global environmental crisis, the threat of bioterrorism, and the failure of liberalism. To help deal with this emerging state of emergency, Savulescu advocates an unjustly discriminatory array of genetic-based governance practices, including detention and segregation.     

Brocchi’s Subapennine Fossil Conchology

The Italian geologist Giambattista Brocchi (1771–1826) is presented as a key figure in the historical period preceding young Charles Darwin’s first work on transmutational theory while on the Beagle. The brief biographical account focuses on Brocchi’s writings related to his analogy that species have births and deaths like individuals, and culminates in his most important work, Subapennine Fossil Conchology of 1814. Brocchi’s analogy as an original and fertile way to approach the fossil record was to influence Darwin’s first evolutionary thinking. Relevant passages of the book are presented for the first time in an English translation.     

Sources of Wilhelm Johannsen’s Genotype Theory

This paper describes the historical background and early formation of Wilhelm Johannsen’s distinction between genotype and phenotype. It is argued that contrary to a widely accepted interpretation (For instance, W. Provine, 1971. The Origins of Theoretical Population Genetics. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press; Mayr, 1973; F. B. Churchill, 1974. Journal of the History of Biology 7: 5–30; E. Mayr, 1982. The Growth of Biological Thought, Cambridge: Harvard University Press; J. Sapp, 2003. Genesis. The Evolution of Biology. New York: Oxford University Press) his concepts referred primarily to properties of individual organisms and not to statistical averages. Johannsen’s concept of genotype was derived from the idea of species in the tradition of biological systematics from Linnaeus to de Vries: An individual belonged to a group – species, subspecies, elementary species – by representing a certain underlying type (S. Müller-Wille and V. Orel, 2007. Annals of Science 64: 171–215). Johannsen sharpened this idea theoretically in the light of recent biological discoveries, not least those of cytology. He tested and confirmed it experimentally combining the methods of biometry, as developed by Francis Galton, with the individual selection method and pedigree analysis, as developed for instance by Louis Vilmorin. The term “genotype” was introduced in W. Johannsen’s 1909 (Elemente der Exakten Erblichkeitslehre. Jena: Gustav Fischer) treatise, but the idea of a stable underlying biological “type” distinct from observable properties was the core idea of his classical bean selection experiment published 6 years earlier (W. Johannsen, 1903. Ueber Erblichkeit in Populationen und reinen Linien. Eine Beitrag zur Beleuchtung schwebender Selektionsfragen, Jena: Gustav Fischer, pp. 58–59). The individual ontological foundation of population analysis was a self-evident presupposition in Johannsen’s studies of heredity in populations from their start in the early 1890s till his death in 1927. The claim that there was a “substantial but cautious modification of Johannsen’s phenotype–genotype distinction” (Churchill, 1974, p. 24) from a statistical to an individual ontological perspective derives from a misreading of the 1903 and 1909 texts. The immediate purpose of this paper is to correct this reading of the 1903 monograph by showing how its problems and results grow out of Johannsen’s earlier work in heredity and plant breeding. Johannsen presented his famous selection experiment as the culmination of a line of criticism of orthodox Darwinism by William Bateson, Hugo de Vries, and others (Johannsen, 1903). They had argued that evolution is based on stepwise rather than continuous change in heredity. Johannsen’s paradigmatic experiment showed how stepwise variation in heredity could be operationally distinguished from the observable, continuous morphological variation. To test Galton’s law of partial regression, Johannsen deliberately chose pure lines of self-fertilizing plants, a pure line being the descendants in successive generations of one single individual. Such a population could be assumed to be highly homogeneous with respect to hereditary type, and Johannsen found that selection produced no change in this type. Galton, he explained, had experimented with populations composed of a number of stable hereditary types. The partial regression which Galton found was simply an effect of selection between types, increasing the proportion of some types at the expense of others.     

Amounts and patterns of nucleotide variation within and between two Japanese conifers, sugi (Cryptomeria japonica) and hinoki (Chamaecyparis obtusa) (Cupressaceae sensu lato)

Sugi (Cryptomeria japonica) and hinoki (Chamaecyparis obtusa) are the most important timber species in Japan. To quantify and compare the level of nucleotide variation in these species, we investigated their variation at ten nuclear loci. Average values of nucleotide diversity at synonymous sites (π _SYN) found in sugi and hinoki were 0.0038 and 0.0069, respectively. However, although the average value of nucleotide diversity was higher in hinoki than in sugi, their average values of haplotype diversity were similar. Deviations from the standard neutral model were detected at two loci in hinoki using Tajima’s D, Fay and Wu’s H, and Strobeck’s S statistics, which seem to be due to its historical population structure. Levels of divergence between the two species at synonymous sites of the ten genes ranged from 0.121 to 0.566 (0.28 on average). These values positively correlated with their guanine + cytosine contents at third-codon positions of synonymous sites (%GC3s).     

A Comparative Analysis of Nineteenth Century Pharmacopoeias in the Southern United States: A Case Study Based on the Gideon Lincecum Herbarium<Superscript>1</Superscript>

A Comparative Analysis of Nineteenth Century Pharmacopoeias in the Southern United States: A Case Study Based on the Gideon Lincecum Herbarium. The Gideon Lincecum Herbarium represents the pharmacopoeia of Dr. Gideon Lincecum, a botanical physician practicing in Mississippi and Texas during the first half of the nineteenth century. The herbarium contains 313 specimens representing 309 species, 242 genera, and 96 families, and includes ethnobotanical annotations for 286 medicinal taxa. The collection data provided by Lincecum indicate that the specimens were collected between 1835 and 1852. With the exception of 22 specimens considered by Campbell (1951), this is the first study to place this pharmacopoeia in a historical context. Taxonomic determinations of the herbarium specimens were confirmed or corrected. Comparative analyses were conducted to investigate the relationship of Lincecum’s pharmacopoeia to those of six other medical traditions practiced in the southern United States during the nineteenth century. Cluster analyses based on Jaccard co-efficient placed the historical pharmacopoeias of medical traditions in the early nineteenth century into distinct Euro–American and American Indian groups. Despite the recognition of distinct allopathic and botanical medical traditions, an extensive overlap in the composition of their pharmacopoeias is observed. This may reflect the reliance of these traditions on allopathic principles and drugs of plant origin during the first half of the nineteenth century. In contrast, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Creek pharmacopoeias show limited overlap with each other in composition despite a long history of interaction between these groups. Lincecum’s pharmacopoeia shares a larger Jaccard co–efficient value with the Choctaw pharmacopoeia than would be expected based on their placement in distinct Euro–American and American Indian groups in the dendrogram. The large proportion of Lincecum’s citations that reference Choctaw informants provides direct evidence for the incorporation of Choctaw medical knowledge and taxa into Lincecum’s pharmacopoeia. These data suggest that the composition of historical pharmacopoeias is influenced by both contemporary medical practices and the regional and cultural contexts in which the pharmacopoeias are utilized.     

Method as a Function of “Disciplinary Landscape”: C.D. Darlington and Cytology, Genetics and Evolution, 1932–1950

This article considers the reception of British cytogeneticist C.D. Darlington’s controversial 1932 book, Recent Advances in Cytology. Darlington’s cytogenetic work, and the manner in which he made it relevant to evolutionary biology, marked an abrupt shift in the status and role of cytology in the life sciences. By focusing on Darlington’s scientific method – a stark departure from anti-theoretical, empirical reasoning to a theoretical and speculative approach based on deduction from genetic first principles – the article characterises the relationships defining the “disciplinary landscape” of the life sciences of the time, namely those between cytology, genetics, and evolutionary theory.     

Darwin’s Sublime: The Contest Between Reason and Imagination in <Emphasis Type="Italic">On the Origin of Species</Emphasis>

Recent Darwin scholarship has provided grounds for recognising the Origin as a literary as well as a scientific achievement. While Darwin was an acute observer, a gifted experimentalist and indefatigable theorist, this essay argues that it was also crucial to his impact that the Origin transcended the putative divide between the scientific and the literary. Analysis of Darwin’s development as a writer between his journal-keeping on HMS Beagle and his construction of the Origin argues the latter draws on the pattern of the Romantic or Kantian sublime. The Origin repeatedly uses strategies which challenge the natural-theological appeal to the imagination in conceiving nature. Darwin’s sublime coaches the Origin’s readers into a position from which to envision nature that reduces and contains its otherwise overwhelming complexity. As such, it was Darwin’s literary achievement that enabled him to fashion a new ‘habit of looking at things in a given way’ that is the centrepiece of the scientific revolution bearing his name.     

Unexpectedly low genetic divergences among populations of the threatened bog turtle (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Glyptemys muhlenbergii</Emphasis>)

We used mitochondrial DNA sequence comparisons to assess range-wide population structure and historical patterns of differentiation among populations of the bog turtle (Glyptemys muhlenbergii). This species is one of North America’s smallest and most endangered pond turtles, and is currently found in three largely disjunct groups of populations: in the southern U.S., in the northeast, and in the Finger Lakes and Lake Ontario Plains region of western and central New York State. All the New York sites and most of the northeastern sites were glaciated during the Pleistocene. We surveyed 2793 bases pairs of mitochondrial DNA spanning three genes (cytb, nd4, and d-loop) in 41 individuals from 21 populations throughout most of the bog turtle’s distribution. We found surprisingly low levels of divergence among populations, even in southern populations that have been hypothesized as refugia during times of climate change. Our data suggest populations of bog turtle’s suffered a bottleneck, followed by a rapid post-Pleistocene expansion into northern segments of the species’ range. We discuss historical changes in habitat availability and climate that may have influenced the historical deployment of lineages in this species, and possible life history traits and habitat dynamics that might also contribute to the overall low genetic diversity across its range.     

H. G. Bronn and the History of Nature

The German paleontologist H. G. Bronn is best remembered for his 1860 translation and critique of Darwin’s Origin of Species, and for supposedly twisting Darwinian evolution into conformity with German idealistic morphology. This analysis of Bronn’s writings shows, however, that far from being mired in an outmoded idealism that confined organic change to predetermined developmental pathways, Bronn had worked throughout the 1840s and 1850s on a new, historical approach to life. He had been moving from the study of plant and animal forms in the abstract towards placing them into geological and biogeographical context, analyzing patterns of progress and adaptation, explaining species diversity and individual variation, and applying biological insights to practical problems such as artificial breeding. Even though Bronn never fully accepted the idea of species transformation, he saw Darwin’s theory as a bold new move toward his own goal of establishing a comprehensive, historical science of life, and he presented it as such in his translation and commentary. Thus Darwin’s ideas gained a quick and generally favorable hearing in Germany not because of their easy assimilability into an older tradition, but because of their appeal to the innovative Bronn.     

Problems with the current deinococcal hypothesis: an alternative theory

All theories related to the evolution of Deinococcus radiodurans have a common denominator: the strong positive correlation between ionizing-radiation resistance and desiccation tolerance. Currently, the widespread hypothesis is that D. radiodurans’ ionizing-radiation resistance is a consequence of this organism’s adaptation to desiccation (desiccation adaptation hypothesis). Here, we draw attention to major discrepancy that has emerged between the “desiccation adaptation hypothesis” and recent findings in computational biology, experimental research, and terrestrial subsurface surveys. We explain why the alternative hypothesis, suggesting that D. radiodurans’ desiccation tolerance could be a consequence of this organism’s adaptation to ionizing radiation (radiation adaptation hypothesis), should be considered on equal basis with the “desiccation adaptation hypothesis”.     

Isolation and characterization ofo-diphenol-O-methyltransferase cDNA clone in hot pepper (Capsicum annuum L.)

A cDNA clone,CaOMTl encoding ano-diphenol-O-methyltransferase (OMT), which is involved in capsaicin biosynthesis, was isolated by screening of a cDNA library prepared from the mRNA of pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) pericarp. Nucleotide sequence analysis ofCaOMTl revealed that it had an open reading frame of 1080 bp which encodes a polypeptide with a predicted molecular weight of 39,430 D, corresponding well with the size of the known OMT’s of tobacco, poplar, aspen, alfalfa, and cabbage. It also had five conserved boxes which appear in all known OMT’s. The nucleotide sequence ofCaOMTl had 89–74% identity with the OMT cDNA’s of tobacco, aspen, alfalfa, and poplar, but a relatively lower identity of 59% with the OMT cDNA of maize. Amino acid sequence analysis also revealed that CaOMT1 has high identity with the known OMT’s which have a substrate ofo-diphenolic compounds, especially 5-hydroxyferulic acid and caffeic acid. It supportsCaOMTl which encodes an OMT. Southern blot analysis suggested thatCaOMTl might exist in the form of multiple copies in the pepper genome.CaOMTl is expressed preferentially in pepper fruit and its expression levels increased during pepper fruit development, but decreased during fruit ripening, suggesting that theCaOMTl gene is fruit development-related.CaOMTl is the first reported cDNA clone for enzymes related to the phenlypropanoid pathway in pepper.     

Separated at Birth: The Interlinked Origins of Darwin’s Unconscious Selection Concept and the Application of Sexual Selection to Race

This essay traces the interlinked origins of two concepts found in Charles Darwin’s writings: “unconscious selection,” and sexual selection as applied to humanity’s anatomical race distinctions. Unconscious selection constituted a significant elaboration of Darwin’s artificial selection analogy. As originally conceived in his theoretical notebooks, that analogy had focused exclusively on what Darwin later would call “methodical selection,” the calculated production of desired changes in domestic breeds. By contrast, unconscious selection produced its results unintentionally and at a much slower pace. Inspiration for this concept likely came from Darwin’s early reading of works on both animal breeding and physical ethnology. Texts in these fields described the slow and unplanned divergence of anatomical types, whether animal or human, under the guidance of contrasting ideals of physical perfection. These readings, it is argued, also led Darwin to his theory of sexual selection as applied to race, a theme he discussed mainly in his book The Descent of Man (1871). There Darwin described how the racial version of sexual selection operated on the same principle as unconscious selection. He thereby effectively reunited these kindred concepts.     

God’S Laboratory: Religious Rationalities And Modernity In Ecuadorian In Vitro Fertilization

Catholicism is the only major world religion that unequivocally bans the use of in vitro fertilization (IVF). Nevertheless, in Ecuador, Catholic IVF practitioners declare God’s dominion over their IVF laboratories and clinics in explaining pregnancy outcomes. My analysis of this routine combination of spiritual and material causal models in Ecuadorian IVF contributes to two ongoing discussions about (1) the tensions between “institutional” and popular forms of Catholic religiosity and (2) the proper boundaries of science in modernity. The Catholic Church’s historical and contemporary struggle to determine control of the miraculous has usually been characterized as a conflict between educated clergy and humble peasants. In the case of Ecuadorian IVF, we find, instead, educated elites and middle classes participating in this same contestation with the Church, proclaiming their direct ability to harness the power of God to effect material change on earth. This spiritual power to affect clinical outcomes does not take place just anywhere, but in clinic and lab, disrupting another set of presumptions about modern scientific practice and subjectivity. Like other Ecuadorian elites and middle classes, IVF practitioners are heirs to Enlightenment thought, and experience themselves as modern in their participation in these high-tech endeavors. But their spiritual approach to laboratory rationality does not trouble these IVF practitioners’ experience of themselves as moderns, prompting a reevaluation of the narratives of scientific modernity that limit their scope to Europe and North America.     

Mycobacterium avium Subspecies Paratuberculosis in the Inflamed Gut Tissues of Patients with Crohn’s Disease in China and its Potential Relationship to the Consumption of Cow’s Milk: A Preliminary Study

Summary Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis infection in domestic livestock is widespread in many countries throughout the world. Studies in Europe and the USA show that M. avium subspecies paratuberculosis can be cultured from retail pasteurized cow’s milk and that these organisms are being transmitted to humans by this route. Most people with chronic inflammation of the intestine of the Crohn’s disease type are infected with these chronic enteric pathogens. The production and consumption of cow’s milk has increased in China and so also has the incidence of Crohn’s disease. The present preliminary investigation was carried out to determine whether M. avium subspecies paratuberculosis is present in the intestinal tissues of Chinese patients with Crohn’s disease who have never left China. Archival paraffin-embedded surgical pathology blocks from patients having surgery for Crohn’s disease (CD) or for cancer (nIBD) in China were studied. M. avium subspecies paratuberculosis was detected by nested IS900 PCR with Southern blotting and amplicon sequencing. The intestinal tissues of 9 of 13 (69.2%) CD patients and 2 of 14 (14.3%) nIBD patients were IS900 PCR positive (P = 0.0063; odds ratio = 13.5). These initial studies suggest that people in China are exposed to M. avium subspecies paratuberculosis and that as in other countries, the infection is significantly associated with Crohn’s disease. M. avium subspecies paratuberculosis in dairy herds and retail milk in China needs to be investigated.     

Facilitations between the Introduced Nitrogen-fixing Tree, Robinia pseudoacacia, and Nonnative Plant Species in the Glacial Outwash Upland Ecosystem of Cape Cod, MA

Robinia pseudoacacia, a nitrogen-fixing, clonal tree species native to the central Appalachian and Ozark Mountains, is considered to be one of the top 100 worldwide woody plant invaders. We initiated this project to determine the impact of black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) on an upland coastal ecosystem and to estimate the spread of this species within Cape Cod National Seashore (CCNS). We censused 20 × 20 m plots for vegetation cover and environmental characteristics in the center of twenty randomly-selected Robinia pseudoacacia stands. Additionally, paired plots were surveyed under native overstory stands, comprised largely of pitch pine (Pinus rigida) and mixed pitch pine–oak (Quercus velutina and Quercus alba) communities. These native stands were located 20 m from the edge of the sampled locust stand and had similar land use histories. To determine the historical distribution of black locust in CCNS, we digitized and georeferenced historical and current aerial photographs of randomly-selected stands. Ordination analyses revealed striking community-level differences between locust and pine–oak stands in their immediate vicinity. Understory nonnative species richness and abundance values were significantly higher under Robinia stands than under the paired native stands. Additionally, animal-dispersed plant species tended to occur in closer stands, suggesting their spread between locust stands. Robinia stand area significantly decreased from the 1970’s to 2002, prompting us to recommend no management action of black locust and a monitoring program and possible removal of associated animal-dispersed species. The introduction of a novel functional type (nitrogen-fixing tree) into this xeric, nutrient-poor, upland forested ecosystem resulted in ‘islands of invasion’ within this resistant system.     

Contact Density Affects Protein Evolutionary Rate from Bacteria to Animals

The density of contacts or the fraction of buried sites in a protein structure is thought to be related to a protein’s designability, and genes encoding more designable proteins should evolve faster than other genes. Several recent studies have tested this hypothesis but have found conflicting results. Here, we investigate how a gene’s evolutionary rate is affected by its protein’s contact density, considering the four species Escherichia coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Drosophila melanogaster, and Homo sapiens. We find for all four species that contact density correlates positively with evolutionary rate, and that these correlations do not seem to be confounded by gene expression level. The strength of this signal, however, varies widely among species. We also study the effect of contact density on domain evolution in multidomain proteins and find that a domain’s contact density influences the domain’s evolutionary rate. Within the same protein, a domain with higher contact density tends to evolve faster than a domain with lower contact density. Our study provides evidence that contact density can increase evolutionary rates, and that it acts similarly on the level of entire proteins and of individual protein domains. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Comparative parasitological examination on sympatric equids in the Great Gobi “B” Strictly Protected Area,Mongolia

The Przewalski’s horse (Equus caballus przewalskii) became extinct in the wild during the 1960s. Based on a successful captive breeding program, Przewalski’s horses were reintroduced to the Great Gobi Part “B” strictly protected area (SPA) in SW Mongolia in the late 1990s. The Asiatic wild ass (Equus hemionus hemionus), Przewalski’s horse, and sometimes domestic horses live sympatricly in the Gobi B SPA. Previously published data demonstrates that, as a result of their different requirements and utilization of the park’s resources, their home-range size and social structure differ. Parasitological examinations in the three equid species show how the factors “home range, social structure, and resource selection” significantly impact parasitic burden. Asiatic wild asses are potentially exposed to a higher risk of parasite re-infection due to their temporal aggregation in very large groups. This study demonstrates a highly significant greater parasite load in the Asiatic wild ass for the majority of parasites evaluated (Dictyocaulus arnfieldi, Trichostrongylus axei, Strongyloides westeri, Parascaris equorum) compared to Przewalski’s horses and domestic horses in the same habitat. Domestic horses had higher parasite loads for eggs of strongylids, eggs of anoplocephalidae, and Eimeria leuckarti. The potential risk of cross infection between sympatric living equids is high, as is the cross infection between ruminants and equids. Furthermore, this study reports for the first time the occurrence of lungworms in free-ranging Przewalski’s horses. Whereas, Asiatic wild asses and Przewalski’s horses seem to cope very well with the sometimes high parasite burden, Mongolian domestic horses manifested typical parasite burden symptoms.