分子生物学与进化的新理论

论述了由于分子生物学取得的成就,而形成的生物进化的新理论,并阐述了若干新理论指导生产实践取得的巨大应用成果。     

The story of a largely unknown evolution – Germ theory hoax

The Piltdown Man debacle provides us with the most infamous forgery in science. However, another equally intriguing story exists concerning a document by a Bostonian called George Sleeper, which purported to be a pre-Darwin–Wallace anticipation of evolution and an equally convincing account of the germ theory published before Louis Pasteur’s famous studies on this subject. The story involves two giants in the world of evolutionary theory, Alfred Russel Wallace and E.B. Poulton. While Wallace was convinced that the Sleeper document was genuine, Poulton’s detailed investigations showed that it was a fake and a hoax. Despite this conclusion, doubts still exist about the authenticity of the Sleeper document.     

Cranial morphology and development: new light on the evolution of language

A hypothesis is presented which may explain within a single framework both the large behavioural differences and the large differences in head morphology between the great apes and humans. All these differences can be parsimoniously explained by a shift of few regulatory genes controlling the onset of the division of late migrating neurons in the human cortex. This simple shift resulted in the following effects: 1) the neurocranium responded to brain enlargement by increasing mineral deposition on its external surface, increasing its overall size and mass. 2) This increase in the braincase was largely achieved by developmental reabsoption of the face bones. 3) The relative shift in growth between these two skull components also induced a rearrangement at the basicranium level. This brought about the facial orthognatism of modernHomo and, as a mechanical by-product, the descent of the larynx into the throat. Brain enlargement led to a large increase in cognitive capacity, and as a developmental byproduct, produced a mechanical organ preadapted for speech, as well as bringing about the reduction of canines and the origin of the chin. In this study, the phylogenetic basis, the selective pressures, and the behavioural consequences of this process during hominization are examined. Cognitiveversus communicative aspects of human language are distinguished and discussed. Cognitive capacities were the first to be selected due to the survival advantage of mapping huge territories during the expansion of the Plio-Pleistocene savanna ecotone. The present hypothesis is then compared with current theories leading to the conclusion that it is a more parsimonious explanation. It integrates data from a wide array of fields of human biology, pathology and clinical medicine, all assessed from evolutionary and ecological perspectives.     

The Theoretical-Biological Concept of Nikolai K. Kol'tsov

The theoretical-biological views of N.K. Kol'tsov are considered as an integral concept with a common approach to the analysis of the form of living structures successively applied to the cell, molecule, developing egg, and organism.     

Mating games: the evolution of human mating transactions

We propose a new, evolutionary, game-theoretic model of conditionalhuman mating strategies that integrates currently disconnectedbodies of data into a single mathematically-explicit theoryof human mating transactions. The model focuses on the problemof how much resource a male must provide to a female to secureand retain her as a mate. By using bidding-game models, we showhow the male's minimally required resource incentive variesas a function of his own mate value, the value of the female,and the distribution of the mate values of their available alternativemates. The resulting theory parsimoniously accounts for strategicpluralism within the sexes, mate choice differences betweenthe sexes, and assortative mating, while generating a rich setof testable new predictions about human mating behavior.     

Evolved ethics re-examined: The theory of Robert J. Richards

Conclusion Richards's theory, then, fails on three counts. By illegitimately importing a premise from outside of the theory of evolution in order to construct a valid argument, Richards has failed to achieve his objective of deriving a moral theory exclusively from biological facts. By sliding from a causal use of ought to a moral one, Richards commits the fallacy of ambiguity. And by insisting that action from the motive of altruism is moral while claiming that an ethical theory which justifies Hitler's camps must be judged false, Richards has falsified his own ethical theory.     

Glynn and the conceptual development of the chemiosmotic theory: A retrospective and prospective view

The origin and evolution of the chemiosmotic theory is described particularly in relation to Peter Mitchell's application of it to model oxidative phosphorylation. Much of the deployment, development and evaluation of the theory occurred at the independent laboratory of the Glynn Research Foundation; the value and future of such an institution is discussed. The role of models mediating between theories and phenomena is analyzed with regard to the growth of knowledge of chemiosmotic systems.     

Contract theory for the evolution of cooperation: The right incentives attract the right partners

Partner choice is a critical stage of many biological interactions, from mating to cooperation. When the quality of the potential partners is unknown, one way to choose is to rely on signaling: costly signals can reveal the quality of the sender and allow the receiver to choose. In some cases, however, signaling (or an active choice based on signals) is not possible, for example in the initiation of the symbiosis between the squid Euprymna scolopes and the bioluminescent bacterium Vibrio fischeri. How is partner choice possible in this and other similar cases? I show that in a game with asymmetric information without signaling, imposing a deliberate cost for establishing the interaction allows the non-informed individual to attract the right partner if the cost induces only high quality individuals to accept the interaction. Furthermore, imposing different costs and rewards may induce the informed individuals to screen themselves according to their types, and therefore allow the non-informed individual to establish an association with the correct partners in the absence of signaling.     

The genius of Wilhelm Hofmeister: the origin of causal-analytical research in plant development

Friederich Wilhelm Benedikt Hofmeister (1824-1877) stands as one of the true giants in the history of biology and belongs in the same pantheon as Darwin and Mendel. Yet by comparison, he is virtually unknown. If he is known at all, it is for his early work on flowering plant embryology and his ground-breaking discovery of the alternation of generations in plants, which he published at age 27 in 1851. Remarkable as the latter study was, it was but a prelude to the more fundamental contributions he was to make in the study of plant growth and development expressed in his books on plant cell biology (Die Lehre von der Pfanzenzelle, 1867) and plant morphology (Allgemeine Morphologie der Gewächse, 1868). In this article we review his remarkable life and career, highlighting the fact that his scientific accomplishments were based largely on self-education in all areas of biology, physics, and chemistry. We describe his research accomplishments, including his early embryological studies and their influence on Mendel's genetic studies as well as his elucidation of the alternation of generations, and we review in detail his cell biology and morphology books. It is in the latter two works that Hofmeister the experimentalist and biophysicist is most manifest. Not only did Hofmeister explore the mechanisms of cytoplasmic streaming, plant morphogenesis, and the effects of gravity and light on their development, but in each instance he developed a biophysical model to integrate and interpret his wealth of observational and experimental data. Because of the lack of attention to the cell and morphology books, Hofmeister's true genius has not been recognized. After studying several evaluations of Hofmeister by contemporary and later workers, we conclude that his reputation became eclipsed because he was so far ahead of his contemporaries that no one could understand or appreciate his work. In addition, his basically organismic framework was out of step with the more reductionistic cytogenetic work that later came in vogue. We suggest that the translation of the cell and morphology books in English would help re-establish him as one of the most notable scientists in the history of plant biology.     

"Describing our whole experience": the statistical philosophies of W. F. R. Weldon and Karl Pearson

There are two motivations commonly ascribed to historical actors for taking up statistics: to reduce complicated data to a mean value (e.g., Quetelet), and to take account of diversity (e.g., Galton). Different motivations will, it is assumed, lead to different methodological decisions in the practice of the statistical sciences. Karl Pearson and W. F. R. Weldon are generally seen as following directly in Galton’s footsteps. I argue for two related theses in light of this standard interpretation, based on a reading of several sources in which Weldon, independently of Pearson, reflects on his own motivations. First, while Pearson does approach statistics from this “Galtonian” perspective, he is, consistent with his positivist philosophy of science, utilizing statistics to simplify the highly variable data of biology. Weldon, on the other hand, is brought to statistics by a rich empiricism and a desire to preserve the diversity of biological data. Secondly, we have here a counterexample to the claim that divergence in motivation will lead to a corresponding separation in methodology. Pearson and Weldon, despite embracing biometry for different reasons, settled on precisely the same set of statistical tools for the investigation of evolution.     

The adaptive legacy of human evolution: A search for the environment of evolutionary adaptedness

The growth of evolutionary psychology has led to renewed interest in what might be the significant evolutionary heritage of people living today, and in the extent to which humans are suited to a particular adaptive environment—the EEA. The EEA, though, is a new tool in the battery of evolutionary concepts, and it is important both that it is scrutinized for its utility, and that the actual reconstructions of the environments in which humans and hominids evolved are based on sound palaeobiological inference and an appropriate use of the phylogenetic context of primate evolution.     

The nature of protein domain evolution: shaping the interaction network

The proteomes that make up the collection of proteins in contemporary organisms evolved through recombination and duplication of a limited set of domains. These protein domains are essentially the main components of globular proteins and are the most principal level at which protein function and protein interactions can be understood. An important aspect of domain evolution is their atomic structure and biochemical function, which are both specified by the information in the amino acid sequence. Changes in this information may bring about new folds, functions and protein architectures. With the present and still increasing wealth of sequences and annotation data brought about by genomics, new evolutionary relationships are constantly being revealed, unknown structures modeled and phylogenies inferred. Such investigations not only help predict the function of newly discovered proteins, but also assist in mapping unforeseen pathways of evolution and reveal crucial, co-evolving inter- and intra-molecular interactions. In turn this will help us describe how protein domains shaped cellular interaction networks and the dynamics with which they are regulated in the cell. Additionally, these studies can be used for the design of new and optimized protein domains for therapy. In this review, we aim to describe the basic concepts of protein domain evolution and illustrate recent developments in molecular evolution that have provided valuable new insights in the field of comparative genomics and protein interaction networks.     

The synthetic theory of evolution: general problems and the German contribution to the synthesis

Summary A metatheoretical and historiographical re-analysis of the Evolutionary Synthesis (the process) and the Synthetic Theory (the result) leads to the following conclusion: The Synthetic Theory is not a reductionistic, but rather a structuralistic theory with a limited range of relevant hierarchical levels. Historically the Synthesis was not a sudden event but a rational long-term project carried out between 1930 and 1950 by a large number of biologists in several countries. In the second part of our paper the contributions of several German biologists to the Synthesis are analyzed.     

Bioenergetics: the evolution of molecular mechanisms and the development of bioenergetic concepts

Possible routes for the evolution of cell energetics are considered. It is assumed that u.v. light was the primary energy source for the precursors of the primordial living cell and that primitive energetics might have been based on the use of the adenine moiety of ADP as the u.v. chromophore. It is proposed that the excitation of the adenine residue facilitated phosphorylation of its amino group with subsequent transfer of a phosphoryl group to the terminal phosphate of ADP to form ATP. ATP-driven carbohydrate synthesis is considered as a mechanism for storing u.v.-derived energy, which was then used in the dark. Glycolysis presumably produced compounds like ethanol and CO₂ which easily penetrate the membrane and therefore were lost by the cell. Later lactate-producing glycolysis appeared, the end product being non-penetrant and, hence, retained inside the cell to be utilized to regenerate carboxydrates when light energy became available. Production of lactate was accompanied by accumulation of equimolar H⁺. To avoid acidification of the cell interior, an F₀-type H⁺ channel was employed. Later it was supplemented with F₁. This allowed the ATP energy to be used for uphill H⁺ pumping to the medium, which was acidified due to glycolytic activity of the cells.In the subsequent course of evolution, u.v. light was replaced by visible light, which has lower energy but is less dangerous for the cell. It is assumed that bacteriorhodopsin, a simple and very stable light-driven H⁺ pump which still exists in halophilic and thermophilic Archaea, was the primary system utilizing visible light. The formed was used to reverse the H⁺-ATPase, which began to function as H⁺-ATP-synthase. Later, bacteriorhodopsin photosynthesis was substituted by a more efficient chlorophyll photosynthesis, producing not only ATP, but also carbohydrates. O₂, a side product of this process, was consumed by the H⁺-motive respiratory chain to form in the dark. At the next stage of evolution, a parallel energy-transducing mechanism appeared which employed Na⁺ instead of H⁺ as the coupling ion (the Na⁺ cycle). As a result, the bioenergetic system became more stable under unfavorable conditions. Apparently, the latest inventions of evolution of biological energy transducers are those which can utilize and outside the coupling membrane, like the bacterial flagellar motor and the TonB-mediated uphill transport of solutes across the outer membrane of bacteria.     

Successful theory development in biology: A consideration of the theories of oxidative phosphorylation proposed by Davies and Krebs,Williams and Mitchell

The chemiosmotic theory is normally attributed to Peter Mitchell's formulation published in Nature in 1961. However, the essential elements of the theory were published 9 years earlier by Davies and Krebs. Why, then, was this earlier formulation overlooked? The success of Mitchell's theory is examined in comparison with those of Davies and Krebs and of Williams.     

The return of reciprocity: a psychological approach to the evolution of cooperation

Recent developments in evolutionary game theory argue the superiority of punishment over reciprocity as accounts of large-scale human cooperation. I introduce a distinction between a behavioral and a psychological perspective on reciprocity and punishment to question this view. I examine a narrow and a wide version of a psychological mechanism for reciprocity and conclude that a narrow version is clearly distinguishable from punishment, but inadequate for humans; whereas a wide version is applicable to humans but indistinguishable from punishment. The mechanism for reciprocity in humans emerges as a meta-norm that governs both retaliation and punishment. I make predictions open to empirical investigation to confirm or disconfirm this view.

The EBG system of E. coli: origin and evolution of a novel beta-galactosidase for the metabolism of lactose

The EBG system of E. coli has served as a model for the evolution of novel functions. This paper reviews the experimental evolution of the catabolism of -galactoside sugars in strains of E. coli that carry deletions of the classical lacZ -galactosidase gene. Evolution of the ebgA encoded Ebg -galactosidase for an expanded substrate range, evolution of the ebgR encoded Ebg repressor for sensitivity to an expanded range of inducers, the amino acid replacements responsible for those changes, and the evolutionary potential of the system are discussed. The EBG system has also served as a model for studying the detailed catalytic consequences of experimental evolution at the physical–chemical level. The analysis of free-energy profiles for the wildtype and all of the various evolved Ebg enzymes has permitted rejection of the Albery–Knowles hypothesis that relates likely changes in free-energy profiles to evolutionary change.