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Macroevolution, hierarchy theory, and the C-value enigma
- T. Ryan Gregory
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- Journal:
- Paleobiology / Volume 30 / Issue 2 / Spring 2004
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 08 February 2016, pp. 179-202
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For more than 60 years, evolutionary biologists have debated the issue of whether the processes of genetic change observable within populations (microevolution) can provide an adequate explanation for the large-scale patterns in the history of life (macroevolution). In general, population geneticists have argued in favor of microevolutionary extrapolation, whereas paleontologists have sought to establish an autonomous and hierarchical macroevolutionary theory based on the operation of selection at several levels of biological organization (especially species). The massive variation in eukaryotic genome sizes (haploid nuclear DNA contents, or “C-values”) has similarly been a subject of debate for more than half a century, and it has become clear that no one-dimensional explanation can account for it. In this article, the basic concepts of macroevolutionary theory are reviewed and then applied to the long-standing puzzle of genome size variation (the “C-value enigma”). Genome size evolution provides a clear example of hierarchy in action and therefore lends support to the theoretical approach of macroevolutionists. Perhaps more importantly, it is apparent that genome evolution cannot be understood without such a hierarchical approach, thereby providing an intriguing conceptual link between the most reductionistic and expansive subjects of evolutionary study.
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- By Michael H. Allen, Leora Amira, Victoria Arango, David W. Ayer, Helene Bach, Christopher R. Bailey, Ross J. Baldessarini, Kelsey Ball, Alan L. Berman, Marian E. Betz, Emily A. Biggs, R. Warwick Blood, Kathleen T. Brady, David A. Brent, Jeffrey A. Bridge, Gregory K. Brown, Anat Brunstein Klomek, A. Jacqueline Buchanan, Michelle J. Chandley, Tim Coffey, Jessica Coker, Yeates Conwell, Scott J. Crow, Collin L. Davidson, Yogesh Dwivedi, Stacey Espaillat, Jan Fawcett, Steven J. Garlow, Robert D. Gibbons, Catherine R. Glenn, Deborah Goebert, Erica Goldstein, Tina R. Goldstein, Madelyn S. Gould, Kelly L. Green, Alison M. Greene, Philip D. Harvey, Robert M. A. Hirschfeld, Donna Holland Barnes, Andres M. Kanner, Gary J. Kennedy, Stephen H. Koslow, Benoit Labonté, Alison M. Lake, William B. Lawson, Steve Leifman, Adam Lesser, Timothy W. Lineberry, Amanda L. McMillan, Herbert Y. Meltzer, Michael Craig Miller, Michael J. Miller, James A. Naifeh, Katharine J. Nelson, Charles B. Nemeroff, Alexander Neumeister, Matthew K. Nock, Jennifer H. Olson-Madden, Gregory A. Ordway, Michael W. Otto, Ghanshyam N. Pandey, Giampaolo Perna, Jane Pirkis, Kelly Posner, Anne Rohs, Pedro Ruiz, Molly Ryan, Alan F. Schatzberg, S. Charles Schulz, M. Katherine Shear, Morton M. Silverman, April R. Smith, Marcus Sokolowski, Barbara Stanley, Zachary N. Stowe, Sarah A. Struthers, Leonardo Tondo, Gustavo Turecki, Robert J. Ursano, Kimberly Van Orden, Anne C. Ward, Danuta Wasserman, Jerzy Wasserman, Melinda K. Westlund, Tracy K. Witte, Kseniya Yershova, Alexandra Zagoloff, Sidney Zisook
- Edited by Stephen H. Koslow, University of Miami, Pedro Ruiz, University of Miami, Charles B. Nemeroff, University of Miami
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- A Concise Guide to Understanding Suicide
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- 05 October 2014
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- 18 September 2014, pp vii-x
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- By Lenard A. Adler, Pinky Agarwal, Rehan Ahmed, Jagga Rao Alluri, Fawaz Al-Mufti, Samuel Alperin, Michael Amoashiy, Michael Andary, David J. Anschel, Padmaja Aradhya, Vandana Aspen, Esther Baldinger, Jee Bang, George D. Baquis, John J. Barry, Jason J. S. Barton, Julius Bazan, Amanda R. Bedford, Marlene Behrmann, Lourdes Bello-Espinosa, Ajay Berdia, Alan R. Berger, Mark Beyer, Don C. Bienfang, Kevin M. Biglan, Thomas M. Boes, Paul W. Brazis, Jonathan L. Brisman, Jeffrey A. Brown, Scott E. Brown, Ryan R. Byrne, Rina Caprarella, Casey A. Chamberlain, Wan-Tsu W. Chang, Grace M. Charles, Jasvinder Chawla, David Clark, Todd J. Cohen, Joe Colombo, Howard Crystal, Vladimir Dadashev, Sarita B. Dave, Jean Robert Desrouleaux, Richard L. Doty, Robert Duarte, Jeffrey S. Durmer, Christyn M. Edmundson, Eric R. Eggenberger, Steven Ender, Noam Epstein, Alberto J. Espay, Alan B. Ettinger, Niloofar (Nelly) Faghani, Amtul Farheen, Edward Firouztale, Rod Foroozan, Anne L. Foundas, David Elliot Friedman, Deborah I. Friedman, Steven J. Frucht, Oded Gerber, Tal Gilboa, Martin Gizzi, Teneille G. Gofton, Louis J. Goodrich, Malcolm H. Gottesman, Varda Gross-Tsur, Deepak Grover, David A. Gudis, John J. Halperin, Maxim D. Hammer, Andrew R. Harrison, L. Anne Hayman, Galen V. Henderson, Steven Herskovitz, Caitlin Hoffman, Laryssa A. Huryn, Andres M. Kanner, Gary P. Kaplan, Bashar Katirji, Kenneth R. Kaufman, Annie Killoran, Nina Kirz, Gad E. Klein, Danielle G. Koby, Christopher P. Kogut, W. Curt LaFrance, Patrick J.M. Lavin, Susan W. Law, James L. Levenson, Richard B. Lipton, Glenn Lopate, Daniel J. Luciano, Reema Maindiratta, Robert M. Mallery, Georgios Manousakis, Alan Mazurek, Luis J. Mejico, Dragana Micic, Ali Mokhtarzadeh, Walter J. Molofsky, Heather E. Moss, Mark L. Moster, Manpreet Multani, Siddhartha Nadkarni, George C. Newman, Rolla Nuoman, Paul A. Nyquist, Gaia Donata Oggioni, Odi Oguh, Denis Ostrovskiy, Kristina Y. Pao, Juwen Park, Anastas F. Pass, Victoria S. Pelak, Jeffrey Peterson, John Pile-Spellman, Misha L. Pless, Gregory M. Pontone, Aparna M. Prabhu, Michael T. Pulley, Philip Ragone, Prajwal Rajappa, Venkat Ramani, Sindhu Ramchandren, Ritesh A. Ramdhani, Ramses Ribot, Heidi D. Riney, Diana Rojas-Soto, Michael Ronthal, Daniel M. Rosenbaum, David B. Rosenfield, Durga Roy, Michael J. Ruckenstein, Max C. Rudansky, Eva Sahay, Friedhelm Sandbrink, Jade S. Schiffman, Angela Scicutella, Maroun T. Semaan, Robert C. Sergott, Aashit K. Shah, David M. Shaw, Amit M. Shelat, Claire A. Sheldon, Anant M. Shenoy, Yelizaveta Sher, Jessica A. Shields, Tanya Simuni, Rajpaul Singh, Eric E. Smouha, David Solomon, Mehri Songhorian, Steven A. Sparr, Egilius L. H. Spierings, Eve G. Spratt, Beth Stein, S.H. Subramony, Rosa Ana Tang, Cara Tannenbaum, Hakan Tekeli, Amanda J. Thompson, Michael J. Thorpy, Matthew J. Thurtell, Pedro J. Torrico, Ira M. Turner, Scott Uretsky, Ruth H. Walker, Deborah M. Weisbrot, Michael A. Williams, Jacques Winter, Randall J. Wright, Jay Elliot Yasen, Shicong Ye, G. Bryan Young, Huiying Yu, Ryan J. Zehnder
- Edited by Alan B. Ettinger, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, Deborah M. Weisbrot, State University of New York, Stony Brook
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- Neurologic Differential Diagnosis
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- 05 June 2014
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- 17 April 2014, pp xi-xx
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- By Nicholas P. Allan, Adrian Angold, Caroline L. Bokhorst, Sam Cartwright-Hatton, Peter Cooper, William Copeland, E. Jane Costello, Cathy Creswell, Helen L. Egger, Thalia C. Eley, Alaattin Erkanli, Andy P. Field, Antonio Castro Fonseca, Alice M. Gregory, Julie A. Hadwin, Annette M. La Greca, Ryan R. Landoll, Kathryn J. Lester, Christopher J. Lonigan, Heidi J. Lyneham, Katharina Manassis, Luci M. Motoca, Peter Muris, Lynne Murray, Laurel Pelligrino, Sean Perrin, Beth M. Phillips, Courtney Pierce, Daniel S. Pine, Helena M. Purkis, Ron M. Rapee, Shirley Reynolds, Wendy K. Silverman, Patrick Smith, James Stacey, Philip D. A. Treffers, John T. Walkup, P. Michiel Westenberg, Charlotte Wilson, Shauna B. Wilson, William Yule
- Edited by Wendy K. Silverman, Florida International University, Andy P. Field, University of Sussex
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- Anxiety Disorders in Children and Adolescents
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- 07 September 2011
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- 25 August 2011, pp ix-xii
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- By Shamsuddin Akhtar, Greg Albert, Sidney Allison, Muhammad Anwar, Haruo Arita, Amanda Barker, Mary Hanna Bekhit, Jeanna Blitz, Tyson Bolinske, David Burbulys, Asokumar Buvanendran, Gregory Cain, Keith A. Candiotti, Daniel B. Carr, Derek Chalmers, John Charney, Rex Cheng, Roger Chou, Keun Sam Chung, Anna Clebone, Frederick Conlin, Susan Dabu-Bondoc, Tiffany Denepitiya-Balicki, Jeanette Derdemezi, Anahat Kaur Dhillon, Ho Dzung, Juan Jose Egas, Stephen M. Eskaros, Zhuang T. Fang, Claudia R. Fernandez Robles, Victor A. Filadora, Ellen Flanagan, Dan Froicu, Allison Gandey, Nehal Gatha, Boris Gelman, Christopher Gharibo, Muhammad K. Ghori, Brian Ginsberg, Michael E. Goldberg, Jeff Gudin, Thomas Halaszynski, Martin Hale, Dorothea Hall, Craig T. Hartrick, Justin Hata, Lars E. Helgeson, Joe C. Hong, Richard W. Hong, Balazs Horvath, Eric S. Hsu, Gabriel Jacobs, Jonathan S. Jahr, Rongjie Jaing, Inderjeet Singh Julka, Zeev N. Kain, Clinton Kakazu, Kianusch Kiai, Mary Keyes, Michael M. Kim, Peter G. Lacouture, Ryan Lanier, Vivian K. Lee, Mark J. Lema, Oscar A. de Leon-Casasola, Imanuel Lerman, Philip Levin, Steven Levin, JinLei Li, Eric C. Lin, Sharon Lin, David A. Lindley, Ana M. Lobo, Marisa Lomanto, Mirjana Lovrincevic, Brenda C. McClain, Tariq Malik, Jure Marijic, Joseph Marino, Laura Mechtler, Alan Miller, Carly Miller, Amit Mirchandani, Sukanya Mitra, Fleurise Montecillo, James M. Moore, Debra E. Morrison, Philip F. Morway, Carsten Nadjat-Haiem, Hamid Nourmand, Dana Oprea, Sunil J. Panchal, Edward J. Park, Kathleen Ji Park, Kellie Park, Parisa Partownavid, Akta Patel, Bijal Patel, Komal D. Patel, Neesa Patel, Swati Patel, Paul M. Peloso, Danielle Perret, Anthony DePlato, Marjorie Podraza Stiegler, Despina Psillides, Mamatha Punjala, Johan Raeder, Siamak Rahman, Aziz M. Razzuk, Maggy G. Riad, Kristin L. Richards, R. Todd Rinnier, Ian W. Rodger, Joseph Rosa, Abraham Rosenbaum, Alireza Sadoughi, Veena Salgar, Leslie Schechter, Michael Seneca, Yasser F. Shaheen, James H. Shull, Elizabeth Sinatra, Raymond S. Sinatra, Neil Singla, Neil Sinha, Denis V. Snegovskikh, Dmitri Souzdalnitski, Julie Sramcik, Zoreh Steffens, Alexander Timchenko, Vadim Tokhner, Marc C. Torjman, Co T. Truong, Nalini Vadivelu, Ashley Vaughn, Anjali Vira, Eugene R. Viscusi, Dajie Wang, Shu-ming Wang, J. Michael Watkins-Pitchford, Steven J. Weisman, Ira Whitten, Bryan S. Williams, Jeremy M. Wong, Thomas Wong, Christopher Wray, Yaw Wu, Anthony T. Yarussi, Laurie Yonemoto, Bita H. Zadeh, Jill Zafar, Martha Zegarra, Keren Ziv
- Edited by Raymond S. Sinatra, Jonathan S. Jahr, University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine, J. Michael Watkins-Pitchford
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- The Essence of Analgesia and Analgesics
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- 06 December 2010
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- 14 October 2010, pp xi-xviii
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- By Phillip L. Ackerman, Neil Anderson, Jens B. Asendorpf, R. Michael Bagby, Michael Harris Bond, Gregory J. Boyle, Andrea L. Briggs, Giles St J. Burch, Turhan Canli, David Canter, Gianvittorio Caprara, Charles S. Carver, Douglas F. Cellar, Gordon Claridge, Susan Cloninger, Elisabeth D. Conradt, Philip J. Corr, Sharon Dawe, Ian J. Deary, Boele De Raad, Edward L. Deci, Colin G. DeYoung, M. Brent Donnellan, Juris G. Draguns, Marko Elovainio, Aurelio José Figueredo, David C. Funder, Paul Gladden, Rapson Gomez, Samuel D. Gosling, Jeremy R. Gray, Robert D. Hare, B. Austin Harley, Edward Helmes, Robert Hogan, Lauri A. Jensen-Campbell, Daniel Nelson Jones, Mika Kivimäki, Jennifer M. Knack, James T. Lamiell, Natalie J. Loxton, Geoff MacDonald, Gerald Matthews, Robert R. McCrae, Mario Mikulincer, Stephanie N. Mullins-Sweatt, Marcus R. Munafò, Vickie Nam, Craig S. Newmann, Rainer Reisenzein, Madeline Rex-Lear, Richard W. Robins, Michael D. Robinson, Mary K. Rothbart, Richard M. Ryan, Gerard Saucier, Michael F. Scheier, Constantine Sedikides, Phillip R. Shaver, Brad E. Sheese, Yuichi Shoda, Ronald E. Smith, Alice F. Stuhlmacher, Rhonda Swickert, Avril Thorne, David D. Vachon, Geneva Vásquez, Michele Vecchione, Seth A. Wagerman, Fiona Warren, Hannelore Weber, Thomas A. Widiger, Pedro Sofio Abril Wolf, Donna Youngs, Moshe Zeidner
- Edited by Philip J. Corr, University of East Anglia, Gerald Matthews, University of Cincinnati
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- Book:
- The Cambridge Handbook of Personality Psychology
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- 05 June 2012
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- 16 July 2009, pp xv-xvii
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Coincidence, coevolution, or causation? DNA content, cell size, and the C-value enigma
- T. RYAN GREGORY
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- Journal:
- Biological Reviews / Volume 76 / Issue 1 / February 2001
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 27 March 2001, pp. 65-101
- Print publication:
- February 2001
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Variation in DNA content has been largely ignored as a factor in evolution, particularly following the advent of sequence-based approaches to genomic analysis. The significant genome size diversity among organisms (more than 200 000-fold among eukaryotes) bears no relationship to organismal complexity and both the origins and reasons for the clearly non-random distribution of this variation remain unclear. Several theories have been proposed to explain this ‘C-value enigma’ (heretofore known as the ‘C-value paradox’), each of which can be described as either a ‘mutation pressure’ or ‘optimal DNA’ theory. Mutation pressure theories consider the large portion of non-coding DNA in eukaryotic genomes as either ‘junk’ or ‘selfish’ DNA and are important primarily in considerations of the origin of secondary DNA. Optimal DNA theories differ from mutation pressure theories by emphasizing the strong link between DNA content and cell and nuclear volumes. While mutation pressure theories generally explain this association with cell size as coincidental, the nucleoskeletal theory proposes a coevolutionary interaction between nuclear and cell volume, with DNA content adjusted adaptively following shifts in cell size. Each of these approaches to the C-value enigma is problematic for a variety of reasons and the preponderance of the available evidence instead favours the nucleotypic theory which postulates a causal link between bulk DNA amount and cell volume. Under this view, variation in DNA content is under direct selection via its impacts on cellular and organismal parameters. Until now, no satisfactory mechanism has been presented to explain this nucleotypic effect. However, recent advances in the study of cell cycle regulation suggest a possible ‘gene–nucleus interaction model’ which may account for it. The present article provides a detailed review of the debate surrounding the C-value enigma, the various theories proposed to explain it, and the evidence in favour of a causal connection between DNA content and cell size. In addition, a new model of nucleotypic influence is developed, along with suggestions for further empirical investigation. Finally, some evolutionary implications of genome size diversity are considered, and a broadening of the traditional ‘biological hierarchy’ is recommended.