In the Light of Evolution: Volume 1. Adaptation and Complex Design (In Light of Evolution)

359 Pages·2007·0.59 MB·English

by  John C. Avise

JOHN C. AVISE and FRANCISCO J. AYALA, Editors
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C.
www.nap.edu
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street., N.W. Washington, DC 20001
This volume is based on the Arthur M. Sackler Colloquium of the National Academy of Sci-
ences, “In the Light of Evolution I: Adaptation and Complex Design,” held December 1-2,
2006, at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences and
Engineering in Irvine, California. The articles appearing in these pages were contributed by
speakers at the colloquium and have been anonymously reviewed. Any opinions, findings,
conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this volume are those of the authors and do
not necessarily reflect the views of the National Academy of Sciences.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
In the light of evolution / John C. Avise and Francisco J. Ayala, editors.
p. cm.
Vol. I based on a colloquium of the National Academy of Sciences, held December 1–2,
2006, in Irvine, California.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-13: 978-0-309-10405-0 (hardcover)
ISBN-10: 0-309-10405-X (hardcover)
ISBN-13: 978-0-309-66786-9 (pdf)
ISBN-10: 0-309-66786-0 (pdf)
1. Evolution (Biology)—Congresses. I. Avise, John C, 1948-. II. Ayala, Francisco José, 1934-
III. National Academy of Sciences (U.S.)
QH359.I55 2007
576.8--dc22
2007032455
Additional copies of this book are available from the National Academies Press, 500Fifth St.,
N.W., Lockbox 285, Washington, DC 10055; [phone] or [phone] (in theWashington
metropolitan area); Internet, http://www.nap.edu.
Cover image: Aboriginal art (acrylic on canvas), Arnhem Land, Northwest Territories,
Australia. Left: “Saltwater Crocodile” by Neil Manyita. Right: “Mimi Spirit with Dillybag
and Stone Axe” by Abraham Dakgalawuy. These images evoke an impression of biotic
complexity. Images courtesy of John C. Avise.
Copyright 2007 by the National Academies of Sciences. All rights reserved.
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www.national-academies.org
Arthur M. Sackler, M.D.
1913-1987
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Arthur M. Sackler
was educated in the arts, sciences, and humanities
at New York University. These interests remained
the focus of his life, as he became widely known
as a scientist, art collector, and philanthropist,
endowing institutions of learning and culture
throughout the world.
He felt that his fundamental role was as a
doctor, a vocation he decided upon at the age of
four. After completing his internship and service
as house physician at Lincoln Hospital in New
York City, he became a resident in psychiatry at
Creedmoor State Hospital. There, in the 1940s, he
started research that resulted in more than 150 papers in neuroendocri-
nology, psychiatry, and experimental medicine. He considered his scien-
tific research in the metabolic basis of schizophrenia his most significant
contribution to science and served as editor of the Journal of Clinical and
Experimental Psychobiology from 1950 to 1962. In 1960 he started publica-
tion of Medical Tribune, a weekly medical newspaper that reached over
one million readers in 20 countries. He established the Laboratories for
Therapeutic Research in 1938, a facility in New York for basic research
that he directed until 1983.
As a generous benefactor to the causes of medicine and basic science,
Arthur Sackler built and contributed to a wide range of scientific insti-
tutions: the Sackler School of Medicine established in 1972 at Tel Aviv
University, Tel Aviv, Israel; the Sackler Institute of Graduate Biomedical
Science at New York University, founded in 1980; the Arthur M. Sackler
Science Center dedicated in 1985 at Clark University, Worcester, Massachu-
setts; and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, established
in 1980, and the Arthur M. Sackler Center for Health Communications,
established in 1986, both at Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts.
His pre-eminence in the art world is already legendary. According to
his wife Jillian, one of his favorite relaxations was to visit museums and
art galleries and pick out great pieces others had overlooked. His interest
in art is reflected in his philanthropy; he endowed galleries at the Metro-
politan Museum of Art and Princeton University, a museum at Harvard
vii
University, and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of Asian Art in Washing-
ton, D.C. True to his oft-stated determination to create bridges between
peoples, he offered to build a teaching museum in China, which Jillian
made possible after his death, and in 1993 opened the Arthur M. Sackler
Museum of Art and Archaeology at Peking University in Beijing.
In a world that often sees science and art as two separate cultures,
Arthur Sackler saw them as inextricably related. In a speech given at the
State University of New York at Stony Brook, Some reflections on the arts,
sciences and humanities, a year before his death, he observed: ‘‘Commu-
nication is, for me, the primum movens of all culture. In the arts. . . I find
the emotional component most moving. In science, it is the intellectual
content. Both are deeply interlinked in the humanities.’’ The Arthur M.
Sackler Colloquia at the National Academy of Sciences pay tribute to this
faith in communication as the prime mover of knowledge and culture.
viii
Contents
Arthur M. Sackler Biography vii
Preface to the In the Light of EvolutionSeries xiii
Preface to In the Light of Evoluion I: Adaptation and Complex Design xv
PART I INTRODUCTORY ESSAY 1
1 Darwin’s Greatest Discovery: Design Without Designer 3
Francisco J. Ayala
PART II EPISTEMOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO
BIOCOMPLEXITY ASSESSMENT 23
2 Functional Information and the Emergence of Biocomplexity 25
Robert M. Hazen, Patrick L. Griffin, James M. Carothers, and
Jack W. Szostak
3 The Theory of Facilitated Variation 45
John Gerhart and Marc Kirschner
ix
x / Contents
4 Between “Design” and “Bricolage”: Genetic Networks,
Levels of Selection, and Adaptive Evolution 65
Adam S. Wilkins
5 The Frailty of Adaptive Hypotheses for the Origins of
Organismal Complexity 83
Michael Lynch
PART III FROM INDIVIDUAL ONTOGENY TO SYMBIOSIS:
A HIERARCHY OF COMPLEXITY 105
6 Emerging Principles of Regulatory Evolution 109
Benjamin Prud’homme, Nicolas Gompel, and Sean B. Carroll
7 Evolution of Individuality During the Transition from
Unicellular to Multicellular Life 129
Richard E. Michod
8 Insect Societies as Divided Organisms: The Complexities of
Purpose and Cross-Purpose 145
Joan E. Strassmann and David C. Queller
9 Symbiosis as an Adaptive Process and Source of
Phenotypic Complexity 165
Nancy A. Moran
PART IV CASE STUDIES: DISSECTING COMPLEX
PHENOTYPES 183
10 Adaptive Evolution of Color Vision as Seen Through the
Eyes of Butterflies 187
Francesca D. Frentiu, Gary D. Bernard, Cristina I. Cuevas,
Marilou P. Sison-Mangus, Kathleen L. Prudic, and
Adriana D. Briscoe
11 Plant Domestication, a Unique Opportunity to Identify the
Genetic Basis of Adaptation 205
Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra, Peter L. Morrell, and Brandon S. Gaut
Contents / xi
12 An Experimental Test of Evolutionary Trade-Offs During
Temperature Adaptation 225
Albert F. Bennett and Richard E. Lenski
13 Two Routes to Functional Adaptation: Tibetan and Andean
High-Altitude Natives 239
Cynthia M. Beall
14 On the Origin and Evolutionary Diversification of Beetle Horns 257
Douglas J. Emlen, Laura Corley Lavine, and Ben Ewen-Campen
PART V CONCLUDING ESSAY 283
15 Biological Design in Science Classrooms 285
Eugenie C. Scott and Nicholas J. Matzke
References 305
Index 345