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Darwinian Evolution (darwinian + evolution)
Selected AbstractsAN EXACT FORM OF THE BREEDER'S EQUATION FOR THE EVOLUTION OF A QUANTITATIVE TRAIT UNDER NATURAL SELECTIONEVOLUTION, Issue 11 2005John S. Heywood Abstract Starting with the Price equation, I show that the total evolutionary change in mean phenotype that occurs in the presence of fitness variation can be partitioned exactly into five components representing logically distinct processes. One component is the linear response to selection, as represented by the breeder's equation of quantitative genetics, but with heritability defined as the linear regression coefficient of mean offspring phenotype on parent phenotype. The other components are identified as constitutive transmission bias, two types of induced transmission bias, and a spurious response to selection caused by a covariance between parental fitness and offspring phenotype that cannot be predicted from parental phenotypes. The partitioning can be accomplished in two ways, one with heritability measured before (in the absence of) selection, and the other with heritability measured after (in the presence of) selection. Measuring heritability after selection, though unconventional, yields a representation for the linear response to selection that is most consistent with Darwinian evolution by natural selection because the response to selection is determined by the reproductive features of the selected group, not of the parent population as a whole. The analysis of an explicitly Mendelian model shows that the relative contributions of the five terms to the total evolutionary change depends on the level of organization (gene, individual, or mated pair) at which the parent population is divided into phenotypes, with each frame of reference providing unique insight. It is shown that all five components of phenotypic evolution will generally have nonzero values as a result of various combinations of the normal features of Mendelian populations, including biparental sex, allelic dominance, inbreeding, epistasis, linkage disequilibrium, and environmental covariances between traits. Additive genetic variance can be a poor predictor of the adaptive response to selection in these models. The narrow-sense heritability s,2A/s,2P should be viewed as an approximation to the offspring-parent linear regression rather than the other way around. [source] Evolutionary archeology: Current status and future prospectsEVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 1 2002Michael J. O'Brien Abstract Darwinian evolution can be defined minimally as "any net directional change or any cumulative change in the characteristics of , populations over many generations,in other words, descent with modification"1 (p. 5). In archeology the population comprises artifacts, which are conceived of as phenotypic.2,4 Extension of the human phenotype to include ceramic vessels, projectile points, and the like is based on the notion that artifacts are material expressions of behavior, which itself is phenotypic. Archeology's unique claim within the natural sciences is its access to past phenotypic characters. Thus, historical questions are the most obvious ones archeologists can ask, although admittedly this is hardly a strong warrant for asking them. But if the issue is evolution, then historical questions must be asked. Posing and answering historical questions is the goal of evolutionary archeology.5. [source] Synthesis and Properties of Oligodeoxynucleotide Analogs with Bis(methylene) Sulfone BridgesHELVETICA CHIMICA ACTA, Issue 9 2003Bernd Eschgfäller A convergent, solution-phase synthesis was developed for the bis(methylene) sulfone-bridged oligodeoxynucleotide analogs (SNA) 5,-d(HOCH2 -Tso2Tso2Tso2Cso2Tso2Tso2Tso2T-CH2SO)-3, (35b) and 5,-d(HOCH2 -Tso2Tso2Tso2Tso2Tso2Tso2Tso2T-CH2SO)-3, (34c) (SO2 corresponds to CH2SO2CH2 instead of OP(O)(O,)(O). In these, the phosphodiester linkages are replaced by non-ionic bis(methylene) sulfone linkers. The general strategy involved convergent coupling of 3,,5,-bishomo- , - D -deoxyribonucleotide analogs functionalized at the 6,-end (CH2C(5,)) as bromides or mesylates and at the CH2C(3,) position as thiols, with the resulting thioether being oxidized to the corresponding sulfone. A single charge was introduced at the terminal CH2C(3,) position of the octamers to increase their solubility in water. During the synthesis, it became apparent that the key intermediates generated secondary structures through either folding or aggregation in a variety of solvents. This generated unusual reactivity and was unique for very similar structures. For example, although the dimeric thiol d(BzOCH2 -Tso2C-CH2SH) (14b) was a well-behaved synthetic intermediate, the tetrameric thiol d(TrOCH2 -Tso2Tso2Tso2toC-CH2SH) derived from the corresponding thioacetate was rapidly converted to a disulfide by very small amounts of oxidant (28,29, Scheme,6), while the analogous tetrameric thiol d(BzOCH2 -Tso2TsTso2T-CH2SH) (26), differing only by a single heterocycle, was oxidized much more slowly (Bz=PhCO, Tr=Ph3C, to=2-MeC6H4CO (at N4 of dc)). The sequence-dependent reactivity, well known in many classes of natural products (including polypeptides), is not prominent in natural oligonucleotides. These results are discussed in light of the proposal that the repeating negative charge in nucleic acids is key to their ability to serve as genetic molecules, in particular, their capability to support Darwinian evolution. The ability of 5,-d(HOCH2 -Tso2Tso2Tso2Cso2Tso2Tso2Tso2T-CH2SO)-3, (35b) to bind as a third strand to duplex DNA was also examined. No triple-helix-forming propensity was detected in this molecule. [source] Formamide Chemistry and the Origin of Informational PolymersCHEMISTRY & BIODIVERSITY, Issue 4 2007Raffaele Saladino Abstract Formamide (HCONH2) provides a chemical frame potentially affording all the monomeric components necessary for the formation of nucleic polymers. In the presence of the appropriate catalysts, and by moderate heating, formamide yields a complete set of nucleic bases, acyclonucleosides, and favors both phosphorylations and transphosphorylations. Physico-chemical conditions exist in which formamide favors the stability of the phosphoester bonds in nucleic polymers more than that of the same bonds in monomers. This property establishes ,thermodynamic niches' in which the polymeric forms are favored. The hypothesis that these specific attributes of formamide allowed the onset of prebiotic chemical equilibria capable of Darwinian evolution is discussed. [source] Darwinian evolution or (r)evolution: ophthalmology and ophthalmic journals in the 21st centuryCLINICAL & EXPERIMENTAL OPHTHALMOLOGY, Issue 2 2009Dipika V Patel PhD MRCOphth No abstract is available for this article. [source] Life, information, entropy, and time: Vehicles for semantic inheritanceCOMPLEXITY, Issue 1 2007Antony R. Crofts Abstract Attempts to understand how information content can be included in an accounting of the energy flux of the biosphere have led to the conclusion that, in information transmission, one component, the semantic content, or "the meaning of the message," adds no thermodynamic burden over and above costs arising from coding, transmission and translation. In biology, semantic content has two major roles. For all life forms, the message of the genotype encoded in DNA specifies the phenotype, and hence the organism that is tested against the real world through the mechanisms of Darwinian evolution. For human beings, communication through language and similar abstractions provides an additional supra-phenotypic vehicle for semantic inheritance, which supports the cultural heritages around which civilizations revolve. The following three postulates provide the basis for discussion of a number of themes that demonstrate some important consequences. (i) Information transmission through either pathway has thermodynamic components associated with data storage and transmission. (ii) The semantic content adds no additional thermodynamic cost. (iii) For all semantic exchange, meaning is accessible only through translation and interpretation, and has a value only in context. (1) For both pathways of semantic inheritance, translational and copying machineries are imperfect. As a consequence both pathways are subject to mutation and to evolutionary pressure by selection. Recognition of semantic content as a common component allows an understanding of the relationship between genes and memes, and a reformulation of Universal Darwinism. (2) The emergent properties of life are dependent on a processing of semantic content. The translational steps allow amplification in complexity through combinatorial possibilities in space and time. Amplification depends on the increased potential for complexity opened by 3D interaction specificity of proteins, and on the selection of useful variants by evolution. The initial interpretational steps include protein synthesis, molecular recognition, and catalytic potential that facilitate structural and functional roles. Combinatorial possibilities are extended through interactions of increasing complexity in the temporal dimension. (3) All living things show a behavior that indicates awareness of time, or chronognosis. The ,4 billion years of biological evolution have given rise to forms with increasing sophistication in sensory adaptation. This has been linked to the development of an increasing chronognostic range, and an associated increase in combinatorial complexity. (4) Development of a modern human phenotype and the ability to communicate through language, led to the development of archival storage, and invention of the basic skills, institutions and mechanisms that allowed the evolution of modern civilizations. Combinatorial amplification at the supra-phenotypical level arose from the invention of syntax, grammar, numbers, and the subsequent developments of abstraction in writing, algorithms, etc. The translational machineries of the human mind, the "mutation" of ideas therein, and the "conversations" of our social intercourse, have allowed a limited set of symbolic descriptors to evolve into an exponentially expanding semantic heritage. (5) The three postulates above open interesting epistemological questions. An understanding of topics such dualism, the élan vital, the status of hypothesis in science, memetics, the nature of consciousness, the role of semantic processing in the survival of societies, and Popper's three worlds, require recognition of an insubstantial component. By recognizing a necessary linkage between semantic content and a physical machinery, we can bring these perennial problems into the framework of a realistic philosophy. It is suggested, following Popper, that the ,4 billion years of evolution of the biosphere represents an exploration of the nature of reality at the physicochemical level, which, together with the conscious extension of this exploration through science and culture, provides a firm epistemological underpinning for such a philosophy. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity, 2007 [source] | |||||||||||||