Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-2pzkn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-01T01:36:51.469Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Redundancy, Plasticity, and Detachment: The Implications of Comparative Genomics for Evolutionary Thinking

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Lenny Moss
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Radically new or unexpected findings in a science demand an openness to new concepts and styles of explanation. The time is more than ripe for asking ourselves what we have learned from the research program of comparative genomics. Where not long ago the human genome was expected to reveal a close association of complexity with the quantitative expansion of the roster of unique genes, more recent findings, especially in relation to comparisons between human and chimp, have raised the bracing possibility that when it comes to complexity, it may be that `less is more'. But `less is more' is not the only observation or inference that follows from the data. The idea of `progressive detachment' will be introduced and set forth as the most perspicuous conceptual resource for unifying and interpreting the overall findings from comparative genomics to date.

Type
Advances in Genomics and Its Conceptual Implications for Development and Evolution
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 73 , Issue 5: Proceedings of the 2004 Biennial Meeting of The Philosophy of Science Association. Part II: Symposia Papers. Edited by Miriam Solomon , December 2006 , pp. 930 - 946
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bailey, J., Gu, Z., Clark, R., Reinert, K., Samonte, R., Schwartz, S., Adams, M., Myers, E., Li, P., and Eichler, E. (2002), “Recent Segmental Duplications in the Human Genome,” Science 297:1003–1007.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bailey, J., Liu, G., and Eichler, E. (2003), “An ALU Transposition Model for the Origin and Expansion of Human Segmental Duplications,” American Journal of Human Genetics 73:823–834.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barclay, A. (2003), “Membrane Proteins with Immunogloblulin-like Domains—a Master Superfamily of Interaction Molecules,” Seminars in Immunology 15:215–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowler, P. (1992), The Eclipse of Darwinism: Anti-Darwinian Theories of Evolution in the Decades around 1900. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Brosius, J. (2003), “The Contribution of RNAs and Retroposition to Evolutionary Novelties,” Genetica 118:99–116.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brümmendorf, T., and Lemmon, V. (2001), “Immunoglobulin Superfamily Receptors: Cis-Interactions, Intracellular Adapters and Alternative Splicing Regulate Adhesion,” Current Opinion in Cell Biology 13:611–618.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carlson, E. (1966), The Gene: A Critical History. New York: Saunders.Google Scholar
Cavalier-Smith, T. (1985), The Evolution of Genome Size. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Cheng, Z., Ventura, M., She, X., Khaitovich, P., Graves, T., Osoegawa, K., Church, D. et al. (2005), “A Genome-Wide Comparison of Recent Chimpanzee and Human Segmental Duplications,” Nature 437:88–93.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sequencing, Chimpanzee and Consortium, Analysis (2005), “Initial Sequence of the Chimpanzee Genome and Comparison with the Human Genome,” Nature 437:69–87.Google Scholar
Chou, H., Hayakawa, T., Diaz, S., Krings, M., Indriati, E., Leakey, M., Paabo, S., Satta, Y., Naoyuki, T., and Varki, A. (2002), “Inactivation of CMP-N-acetylneuraminic Acid Hydroxylase Occurred Prior to Brain Expansion during Human Evolution,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 99:11736–11741.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Claverie, J. (2001), “Gene Number: What If There Are Only 30,000 Human Genes?” Science 291:1255–1257.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dehal, Paramvir, Predki, Paul, Olsen, Anne S., Kobayashi, Art, Folta, Peg, Lucas, Susan, Land, Miriam et al. (2001), “Human Chromosome 19 and Related Regions in Mouse: Conservative and Lineage-Specific Evolution,” Science 293:104–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deininger, P., Moran, J., Batzer, M., and Jr, H. Kazazian. (2003), “Mobile Elements and Mammalian Genome Evolution,” Current Opinion in Genetics and Development 13:651–658.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fedorova, L., and Fedorov, A. (2003), “Introns in Evolution,” Genetica 118:123–131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gans, C., and Northcutt, G. (1983), “Neural Crest and the Origin of Vertebrates: A New Head,” Science 220:268–274.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gilbert, S. (2000), Developmental Biology. 6th ed. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates.Google Scholar
Grene, M., and Depew, D. (2004), The Philosophy of Biology: An Episodic History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, M., and Wilson, A. (1975), “Evolution at Two Levels in Humans and Chimpanzees,” Science 188:107–116.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kirschner, M., and Gerhart, J. (2005), The Plausibility of Life. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Le Douarin, N., Creuzet, S., Couly, G., and Dupin, E. (2004), “Neural Crest Cell Plasticity and Its Limits,” Development 131:4637–4650.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Le Douarin, N., and Dupin, E. (2003), “Multipotentiality of the Neural Crest,” Current Opinion in Genetics and Development 13:529–536.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Levine, M., and Tjian, R. (2003), “Transcriptional Regulation and Animal Diversity,” Nature 424:147–151.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Li, W., and Saunders, M. (2005), “The Chimpanzee and Us,” Nature 437 (7055): 50–51..CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Liu, G., Comparative Sequencing Program, NISC, Zhao, S., Bailey, J., Sahinalp, S., Alkan, C., Tuzun, E., Green, E., and Eichler, E. (2003), “Analysis of Primate Genomic Variation Reveals a Repeat-Driven Expansion of the Human Genome,” Genome Research 13:358–368.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mattick, J. (2001), “Non-coding RNAs: The Architects of Eukaryotic Complexity,” EMBO Reports 11:986–991.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mattick, J. (2003), “Challenging the Dogma: The Hidden Layer of Non-protein-coding RNAs in Complex Organisms,” BioEssays 25:930–939.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moss, L. (2003), What Genes Can’t Do. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Moss, L. (2005), “Darwinism, Dualism and Biological Agency,” in Hösle, V. and Illies, C. (eds.), Darwinism and Philosophy. South Bend, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Olson, M. (1999), “Molecular Evolution ’99—When Less Is More: Gene Loss as an Engine of Evolutionary Change,” American Journal of Human Genetics 64:18–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olson, M., and Varki, A. (2003), “Sequencing the Chimpanzee Genome: Insights into Human Evolution and Disease,” Nature Reviews Genetics 4:20–28.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
O’Malley, M., and Dupré, J. (2005), “Fundamental Issues in Systems Biology,” BioEssays 27:1270–1276.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Patthy, L. (2003), “Molecular Assembly of Genes and the Evolution of New Functions,” Genetica 118:217–231.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Samonte, R., and Eichler, E. (2002), “Segmental Duplications and the Evolution of the Primate Genome,” Nature Reviews Genetics 3:65–72.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shapiro, J. (2002), “A 21st Century View of Evolution,” Journal of Biological Physics 28:745–764.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shapiro, J., and Sternberg, R. von (2005), “Why Repetitive DNA Is Essential to Genome Function,” Biological Reviews 80:227–250.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
West-Eberhard, M. (2003), Developmental Plasticity and Evolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar