Contra Darwin: Natura facit saltus redivivus

The many ways toward punctuated evolution

Salva Duran-Nebreda, Blai Vidiella, Andrej Spiridonov, Niles Eldredge, Michael J. O'Brien, R. Alexander Bentley, Sergi Valverde

First published: 22 October 2024 https://doi.org/10.1111/pala.12731

Editor. David Button

Abstract

Punctuated equilibria is a theory of evolution that suggests that species go through periods of stability followed by sudden changes in phenotype. This theory has been debated for decades in evolutionary biology, but recent findings of stasis and punctuated change in evolutionary systems such as tumour dynamics, viral evolution, and artificial evolution have attracted attention from a broad range of researchers. There is a risk of interpreting punctuated change from a phenomenological, or even metaphorical, standpoint and thus opening the possibility of repeating similar debates that have occurred in the past. How to translate the lessons from evolutionary models of the fossil record to explain punctuated changes in other biological scales remains an open question. To minimize confusion, we recommend that the step-like pattern seen in many evolutionary systems be referred to as punctuated evolution rather than punctuated equilibria, which is the theory generally linked with the similar pattern in the fossil record. Punctuated evolution is a complex pattern resulting from the interaction of both external and internal eco-evolutionary feedback. The interplay between these evolutionary drivers can help explain the history of life and the whole spectrum of evolutionary dynamics, including diversification, cyclic changes, and stability.

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Darwin, nós temos um grave problema epistemológico: as explicações genéticas simplistas de evolução

The case against simplistic genetic explanations of evolution 

Kimberly L. Cooper 

 * Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA

*Author for correspondence (kcooper@ucsd.edu) 

Competing interests: The author declares no competing or financial interests.

Online ISSN: 1477-9129

Print ISSN: 0950-1991

Funding

Funding Group: Award Group:

Funder(s):  National Institutes of Health

© 2024. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd

Development (2024) 151 (20): dev203077.

https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.203077

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ABSTRACT

Humans are curious to understand the causes of traits that distinguish us from other animals and that distinguish vastly different species from one another. We also have a proclivity for simple stories and sometimes tend toward seeking and accepting simple genetic explanations for large evolutionary shifts, even to a single gene. Here, I reveal how a biased expectation of mechanistic simplicity threads through the long history of evolutionary and developmental genetics. I argue, however, that expecting a simple mechanism threatens a deeper understanding of evolution, and I define the limitations for interpreting experimental evidence in evolutionary developmental genetics.

Keywords: Evo-devo, Evolution, History of Science, Macroevolution, Trait loss

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Darwin, nós temos um grave problema epistemológico: como explicar a seleção na evolução molecular?

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science

Volume 107, October 2024, Pages 54-63

Selection in molecular evolution

David Lynn Abel

The Gene Emergence Project, Proto-BioCybernetics & Proto-Cellular Metabolomics, The Origin of Life Science Foundation, Inc., 14005 Youderian Drive, Bowie, MD, 20721-2225, USA

Received 15 February 2023, Revised 29 May 2024, Accepted 29 July 2024, Available online 12 August 2024, Version of Record 12 August 2024.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2024.07.004

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Abstract

Evolution requires selection. Molecular/chemical/preDarwinian evolution is no exception. One molecule must be selected over another for molecular evolution to occur and advance. Evolution, however, has no goal. The laws of physics have no utilitarian desire, intent or proficiency. Laws and constraints are blind to “usefulness.” How then were potential multi-step processes anticipated, valued and pursued by inanimate nature? Can orchestration of formal systems be physico-chemically spontaneous? The purely physico-dynamic self-ordering of Chaos Theory and irreversible non-equilibrium thermodynamic “engines of disequilibria conversion” achieve neither orchestration nor formal organization. Natural selection is a passive and after-the-fact-of-life selection. Darwinian selection reduces to the differential survival and reproduction of the fittest already-living organisms. In the case of abiogenesis, selection had to be 1) Active, 2) Pre-Function, and 3) Efficacious. Selection had to take place at the molecular level prior to the existence of non-trivial functional processes. It could not have been passive or secondary. What naturalistic mechanisms might have been at play?

Keywords

Molecular evolution Life origin Abiogenesis Self-organization Emergence Pre-Darwinian evolution Chemical evolution Nonequilibrium thermodynamics Natural selection

FREE PDF GRATIS: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science

Será que foi daí que surgiram as mitocôndrias?

Nature

Inducing novel endosymbioses by implanting bacteria in fungi

Gabriel H. Giger, Chantal Ernst, Ingrid Richter, Thomas Gassler, Christopher M. Field, Anna Sintsova, Patrick Kiefer, Christoph G. Gäbelein, Orane Guillaume–Gentil, Kirstin Scherlach, Miriam Bortfeld-Miller, Tomaso Zambelli, Shinichi Sunagawa, Markus Künzler, Christian Hertweck & Julia A. Vorholt

Abstract

Endosymbioses have profoundly impacted the evolution of life and continue to shape the ecology of a wide range of species. They give rise to new combinations of biochemical capabilities that promote innovation and diversification1,2. Despite the many examples of known endosymbioses across the tree of life, their de novo emergence is rare and challenging to uncover in retrospect3,4,5. Here we implant bacteria into the filamentous fungus Rhizopus microsporus to follow the fate of artificially induced endosymbioses. Whereas Escherichia coli implanted into the cytosol induced septum formation, effectively halting endosymbiogenesis, Mycetohabitans rhizoxinica was transmitted vertically to the progeny at a low frequency. Continuous positive selection on endosymbiosis mitigated initial fitness constraints by several orders of magnitude upon adaptive evolution. Phenotypic changes were underscored by the accumulation of mutations in the host as the system stabilized. The bacterium produced rhizoxin congeners in its new host, demonstrating the transfer of a metabolic function through induced endosymbiosis. Single-cell implantation thus provides a powerful experimental approach to study critical events at the onset of endosymbiogenesis and opens opportunities for synthetic approaches towards designing endosymbioses with desired traits.

FREE PDF: Nature