How to be an anti-reductionist about developmental biology: Response to Laubichler and Wagner

Alexander Rosenberg recently claimed (1997) that developmental biology is currently being reduced to molecular biology. cite several concrete biological examples that are intended to impugn Rosenberg's claim. I first argue that although Laubichler and Wagner's examples would refute a very strong reductionism, a more moderate reductionism would escape their attacks. Next, taking my cue from the antireductionist's perennial stress on the importance of spatial organization, I describe one form an empirical finding that refutes this moderate reductionism would take. Finally, I point out an actual example, anterior-posterior axis determination in the chick, that challenges the reductionist's belief that all developmental regularities can be explained by molecular biology. In short, I argue that Rosenberg's position can be saved from Laubichler and Wagner's criticisms and putative counter-examples, but it would not survive a different kind of counter-example.     

Statistical tests of models of DNA substitution

Summary Penny et al. have written that The most fundamental criterion for a scientific method is that the data must, in principle, be able to reject the model. Hardly any [phylogenetic] tree-reconstruction methods meet this simple requirement. The ability to reject models is of such great importance because the results of all phylogenetic analyses depend on their underlying models—to have confidence in the inferences, it is necessary to have confidence in the models. In this paper, a test statistics suggested by Cox is employed to test the adequacy of some statistical models of DNA sequence evolution used in the phylogenetic inference method introduced by Felsentein. Monte Carlo simulations are used to assess significance levels. The resulting statistical tests provide an objective and very general assessment of all the components of a DNA substitution model; more specific versions of the test are devised to test individual components of a model. In all cases, the new analyses have the additional advantage that values of phylogenetic parameters do not have to be assumed in order to perform the tests.     

Systems biology,emergence and antireductionism

This study explores the conceptual history of systems biology and its impact on philosophical and scientific conceptions of reductionism, antireductionism and emergence. Development of systems biology at the beginning of 21st century transformed biological science. Systems biology is a new holistic approach or strategy how to research biological organisms, developed through three phases. The first phase was completed when molecular biology transformed into systems molecular biology. Prior to the second phase, convergence between applied general systems theory and nonlinear dynamics took place, hence allowing the formation of systems mathematical biology. The second phase happened when systems molecular biology and systems mathematical biology, together, were applied for analysis of biological data. Finally, after successful application in science, medicine and biotechnology, the process of the formation of modern systems biology was completed.Systems and molecular reductionist views on organisms were completely opposed to each other. Implications of systems and molecular biology on reductionist–antireductionist debate were quite different. The analysis of reductionism, antireductionism and emergence issues, in the era of systems biology, revealed the hierarchy between methodological, epistemological and ontological antireductionism. Primarily, methodological antireductionism followed from the systems biology. Only after, epistemological and ontological antireductionism could be supported.     

保护生物学一新分支学科——保护遗传学

研究人类对生物多样性的影响以及防止物种灭绝是保护生物学的两个主要目的。随着环境日益恶化、分子遗传学的迅速发展以及保护生物学和分子遗传学的不为民相互渗透,和产生了一全新的分支学科－－保护遗传学。保护遗传学是保护生物学研究中的一个核心部分,主要研究濒危物种的遗传多样性和保护物种的进化潜力。目前保护遗传学已成为国际上的一个研究热点,但在我国才刚刚起步,为此,本文就保护,遗传学的产生和发展及其研究内容和意义作一简要介绍,以推动我国在该方面的研究。     

The strategy concept and John Maynard Smith’s influence on theoretical biology

Here we argue that the concept of strategies, as it was introduced into biology by John Maynard Smith, is a prime illustration of the four dimensions of theoretical biology in the post-genomic era. These four dimensions are: data analysis and management, mathematical and computational model building and simulation, concept formation and analysis, and theory integration. We argue that all four dimensions of theoretical biology are crucial to future interactions between theoretical and empirical biologists as well as with philosophers of biology.     

荧光原位杂交技术在植物学中的应用

荧光原位杂匀技术（fluorescence in situ hybridization,FISH）是80年代末才发展起来的一种非放射性原位杂交技术。作为一种新型的细胞分子遗传学技术,目前已广泛应用于细胞遗传学、分子生物学等领域。本文简要综述了该技术的基本原理与特点及其在植物学中的应用,包括在异源染色质的鉴定、染色体物理图谱的构建和染色体RNA及植物基因组进货中的应用。     

How development changes evolution: conceptual and historical issues in evolutionary developmental biology

Evolutionary developmental biology (Evo-Devo) is a new and rapidly developing field of biology which focuses on questions in the intersection of evolution and development and has been seen by many as a potential synthesis of these two fields. This synthesis is the topic of the books reviewed here. Integrating Evolution and Development (edited by Roger Sansom and Robert Brandon), is a collection of papers on conceptual issues in Evo-Devo, while From Embryology to Evo-Devo (edited by Manfred Laubichler and Jane Maienschein) is a history of the problem of the relations between ontogeny and phylogeny.

Overcoming the Newtonian paradigm: The unfinished project of theoretical biology from a Schellingian perspective

Defending Robert Rosen's claim that in every confrontation between physics and biology it is physics that has always had to give ground, it is shown that many of the most important advances in mathematics and physics over the last two centuries have followed from Schelling's demand for a new physics that could make the emergence of life intelligible. Consequently, while reductionism prevails in biology, many biophysicists are resolutely anti-reductionist. This history is used to identify and defend a fragmented but progressive tradition of anti-reductionist biomathematics. It is shown that the mathematico–physico–chemical morphology research program, the biosemiotics movement, and the relational biology of Rosen, although they have developed independently of each other, are built on and advance this anti-reductionist tradition of thought. It is suggested that understanding this history and its relationship to the broader history of post-Newtonian science could provide guidance for and justify both the integration of these strands and radically new work in post-reductionist biomathematics.     

车前属(Plantago L.)植物生态与进化生物学研究进展

车前属植物是理论生态学、生理生态学、进化生物学研究的理想材料。本文综述了近年来国内外学者在车前属生态学、进化生物学、系统分类学方面的研究概况。     

Were neandertal and modern human cranial differences produced by natural selection or genetic drift?

Most evolutionary explanations for cranial differences between Neandertals and modern humans emphasize adaptation by natural selection. Features of the crania of Neandertals could be adaptations to the glacial climate of Pleistocene Europe or to the high mechanical strains produced by habitually using the front teeth as tools, while those of modern humans could be adaptations for articulate speech production. A few researchers have proposed non-adaptive explanations. These stress that isolation between Neandertal and modern human populations would have lead to cranial diversification by genetic drift (chance changes in the frequencies of alleles at genetic loci contributing to variation in cranial morphology). Here we use a variety of statistical tests founded on explicit predictions from quantitative- and population-genetic theory to show that genetic drift can explain cranial differences between Neandertals and modern humans. These tests are based on thirty-seven standard cranial measurements from a sample of 2524 modern humans from 30 populations and 20 Neandertal fossils. As a further test, we compare our results for modern human cranial measurements with those for a genetic dataset consisting of 377 microsatellites typed for a sample of 1056 modern humans from 52 populations. We conclude that rather than requiring special adaptive accounts, Neandertal and modern human crania may simply represent two outcomes from a vast space of random evolutionary possibilities.     

On the stochastic model for estimation of mutational distance between homologous proteins

Summary A set of simple equations is derived which gives the relationship between the observed amino acid differences per 100 codons and the evolutionary distance per 100 codons using Holmquist's stochastic model of molecular evolution.Contribution No. 910 from the National Institute of Genetics, Mishima, Shizuoka-ken 411 Japan.     

Network design meets in silico evolutionary biology

Cell fate is programmed through gene regulatory networks that perform several calculations to take the appropriate decision. In silico evolutionary optimization mimics the way Nature has designed such gene regulatory networks. In this review we discuss the basic principles of these evolutionary approaches and how they can be applied to engineer synthetic networks. We summarize the basic guidelines to implement an in silico evolutionary design method, the operators for mutation and selection that iteratively drive the network architecture towards a specified dynamical behavior. Interestingly, as it happens in natural evolution, we show the existence of patterns of punctuated evolution. In addition, we highlight several examples of models that have been designed using automated procedures, together with different objective functions to select for the proper behavior. Finally, we briefly discuss the modular designability of gene regulatory networks and its potential application in biotechnology.     

The origin of the tRNA molecule: Independent data favor a specific model of its evolution

The properties, historical and empirical observations of a model of the origin of the tRNA molecule are discussed. This model would predict that this molecule originated by means of the assembly of two hairpin-like structures of RNA. The conclusion is that the model possesses a relevant part of the truth on the origin of the tRNA molecule.     

蓝藻分子遗传学又十年

蓝藻是一类进行产氧光合作用的原核生物,又称蓝细菌,广泛分布于地球上各种类型的水环境和一些陆生环境,是海洋和内陆水体中最重要的原初生产者.蓝藻分子遗传学在上个世纪八十年代奠定基础,在许多方面借鉴其他类群微生物分子遗传学业已发展的技术和方法,取得了诸多成绩[1],但总体上处于开拓阶段.这一时期的研究方法一般是建立基因转移系统,筛选突变株,单个或少数几个基因的克隆和表达分析等.进入九十年代后随着被鉴别基因数量的增加和更有效的研究方法的引入,蓝藻生物学已经能够着眼于整个基因调控途径或调控网络的解析.     

放线菌的分子分类

在放线菌分类学研究中,最初是根据形态特征、生理生化特征等表观分类学特征进行研究。随着分子生物学的飞速发展,放线菌的分类鉴定亦从传统的表型分类进入到各种基因型分类水平。分子分类在放线菌分类研究中起到越来越重要的作用,目前放线菌的分子分类研究主要包括:G Cmol%测定、DNA杂交、核酸结构分析以及DNA指纹图谱分析等方面。