Trends in Genetics
UpdateResearch FocusThe Origin at 150: is a new evolutionary synthesis in sight?
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Acknowledgments
The author is supported by the DHHS (NIH, National Library of Medicine) intramural funds.
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Cited by (38)
Avoidance of protein unfolding constrains protein stability in long-term evolution
2021, Biophysical JournalThe evolutionary role of the environment: back to Lamarck and Darwin, not to Darwinism
2020, Science of the Total EnvironmentBeyond the modern synthesis: A framework for a more inclusive biological synthesis
2020, Progress in Biophysics and Molecular BiologyCitation Excerpt :An even greater challenge to the Modern Synthesis arose with the discovery that single celled prokaryotes are profligate sharers of genetic material via “horizontal” (or lateral) gene transmission and do not strictly follow the pattern of competition and Mendelian “vertical” inheritance from parent to offspring, as assumed under the Modern Synthesis (Sapp, 2009; Koonin, 2011; Crisp et al., 2015). As molecular biologist Eugene Koonin (2009) concluded, all the central tenets of the Modern Synthesis break down with prokaryotes and the findings of comparative genomics. The prokaryote world can best be described as a single, vast, interconnected gene pool, he argued.
The non-Darwinian evolution of behavers and behaviors
2019, Behavioural ProcessesCitation Excerpt :“Darwinian (positive) selection is important but is only one of several fundamental forces of evolution, and not necessarily the dominant one. Neutral processes constrained by purifying selection dominate evolution” (Koonin, 2009, Table 1). Such purifying selection is a life or death matter for the particular organism that gets purified; but those that survived the harrow told everyone else, sister or not, con-“specific” or not, how to do it, and those learned the tricks vicariously, on the original world-wide web.
Ecosystems as Chimeras: A thought experiment in Rosennean Complexity
2018, Ecological ComplexityCitation Excerpt :The latter authors provide a history and overview of SET based upon the idea that evolution is central to life itself – a view not held by Rosen (2000), although life is central to evolution. More recently, SET has become difficult to support with so many exposed omissions, unnecessary constraints, and strong criticisms coming from many different areas of current research such as developmental biology-EVO-DEVO, epigenetics and transgenerational epigenetic inheritance, phenotypic plasticity, molecular biology, microbiology, genomics and genetic networks, systems biology, bio-informatics, symbiogenesis, multi-level selection, ecosystem-level ecology and NC, etc., (Danchin et al., 2011; Koonin, 2009a; E.V. b; Laland et al., 2015; Laubichler and Renn, 2015 as well as others mentioned below). SET appears to be exhibiting those telltale cracks and fissures that precede a paradigm shift (Kuhn, 1970; Lane 2018b, this issue).
Darwin and Mendel: The Historical Connection
2018, Advances in GeneticsCitation Excerpt :Based on these facts, it is not unreasonable to suggest that Darwin should have been regarded as one of the most important pioneers in genetics (Liu & Li, 2016). In 2008 and 2009, the 150th anniversary of the presentation and publication of Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection, many papers were published for its celebration (Avise and Ayala, 2009; Beccaloni and Smith, 2008; Costa, 2009; Koonin, 2009; Padian, 2008; Pagel, 2009). Similarly, in 2015 and 2016, the 150th anniversary of the presentation and publication of Mendel’s paper, there were also many celebrations (Birchler, 2015; Gayon, 2016; Radick, 2015; Singh, 2015; Smykal et al., 2016; Torres, 2016).