Why Physiology is now the key to understanding Evolution (original) (raw)
Related papers
Situating physiology within evolutionary theory.
Journal of Physiology, 2023
Traditionally defined as the science of the living, or as the field that beyond anatomical structure and bodily form studies functional organization and behaviour, physiology has long been excluded from evolutionary research. The main reason for this exclusion is that physiology has a presential and futuristic outlook on life, while evolutionary theory is traditionally defined as the study of natural history. In this paper, I re-evaluate these classic science divisions and situate physiology within the history of the evolutionary sciences, as well as within debates on the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis and the need for a Third Way of Evolution. I then briefly point out how evolutionary physiology in particular contributes to research on function, causation, teleonomy, agency and cognition.
Physiology is rocking the foundations of evolutionary biology
The 'Modern Synthesis' (Neo-Darwinism) is a mid-twentieth century gene-centric view of evolution, based on random mutations accumulating to produce gradual change through natural selection. Any role of physiological function in influencing genetic inheritance was excluded. The organism became a mere carrier of the real objects of selection: its genes. We now know that genetic change is far from random and often not gradual. Molecular genetics and genome sequencing have deconstructed this unnecessarily restrictive view of evolution in a way that reintroduces physiological function and interactions with the environment as factors influencing the speed and nature of inherited change. Acquired characteristics can be inherited, and in a few but growing number of cases that inheritance has now been shown to be robust for many generations. The twenty-first century can look forward to a new synthesis that will reintegrate physiology with evolutionary biology.
Evolutionary Medicine: The Ongoing Evolution of Human Physiology and Metabolism
Physiology
The field of evolutionary medicine uses evolutionary principles to understand changes in human anatomy and physiology that have occurred over time in response to environmental changes. Through this evolutionary-based approach, we can understand disease as a consequence of anatomical and physiological “trade-offs” that develop to facilitate survival and reproduction. We demonstrate how diachronic study of human anatomy and physiology is fundamental for an increased understanding of human health and disease.
Physiology restores purpose to evolutionary biology
Biological Journal of the Linnean Society
Life is purposefully creative in a continuous process of maintaining integrity; it adapts to counteract change. This is an ongoing, iterative process. Its actions are essentially directed to this purpose. Life exists to exist. Physiology is the study of purposeful living function. Function necessarily implies purpose. This was accepted all the way from William Harvey in the 17th century, who identified the purpose of the heart to pump blood and so feed the organs and tissues of the body, through many 19th and early 20th century examples. But late 20th century physiology was obliged to hide these ideas in shame. Teleology became the ‘lady who no physiologist could do without, but who could not be acknowledged in public.’ This emasculation of the discipline accelerated once the Central Dogma of molecular biology was formulated, and once physiology had become sidelined as concerned only with the disposable vehicle of evolution. This development has to be reversed. Even on the practical...
Annual Review of Physiology, 1994
Evolutionary physiology represents an explicit fusion of two complementary approaches: evolution and physiology. Stimulated by four major intellectual and methodological developments (explicit consideration of diverse evolutionary mechanisms, phylogenetic approaches, incorporation of the perspectives and tools of evolutionary genetics and selection studies, and generalization of molecular techniques to exotic organisms), this field achieved prominence during the past decade. It addresses three major questions regarding physiological evolution: (a) What are the historical, ecological, and phylogenetic patterns of physiological evolution? (b) How important are and were each of the known evolutionary processes (natural selection, sexual selection, drift, constraint, genetic coupling/hitchhiking, and others) in engendering or limiting physiological evolution? and (c) How do the genotype, phenotype, physiological performance, and fitness interact in influencing one another's future values? To answer these questions, evolutionary physiology examines extant and historical variation and diversity, standing genetic and phenotypic variability in populations, and past and ongoing natural selection in the wild. Also, it manipulates genotypes, phenotypes, and environments of evolving populations in the laboratory and field. Thus, evolutionary physiology represents the infusion of paradigms, techniques, and approaches of evolutionary biology, genetics, and systematics into physiology. The reciprocal infusion of physiological approaches into evolutionary biology and systematics can likewise have great value and is a future goal.
Evolutionary Physiology: History, Principles
- The history of comparative and evolutionary physiology since the early XIX century is given; 2) The methods of evolutionary physiology are described; 3) Principles of the evolution of function are discussed at every level of physiological organization (cellular, functional units of the organ, the organ itself, functional systems) as they apply to the kidney and to the regulation of salt and water balance; and 4) General questions of evolutionary physiology covering physico-chemical factors in evolution of functions, the development of the integrityof an organism, theorigin of physiological adaptation, thedevelopment ofinterconnection ofphysiolog- ical systems are discussed.
Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 2000
Evolutionary physiology represents an explicit fusion of two complementary approaches: evolution and physiology. Stimulated by four major intellectual and methodological developments (explicit consideration of diverse evolutionary mechanisms, phylogenetic approaches, incorporation of the perspectives and tools of evolutionary genetics and selection studies, and generalization of molecular techniques to exotic organisms), this field achieved prominence during the past decade. It addresses three major questions regarding physiological evolution: (a) What are the historical, ecological, and phylogenetic patterns of physiological evolution? (b) How important are and were each of the known evolutionary processes (natural selection, sexual selection, drift, constraint, genetic coupling/hitchhiking, and others) in engendering or limiting physiological evolution? and (c) How do the genotype, phenotype, physiological performance, and fitness interact in influencing one another's future values? To answer these questions, evolutionary physiology examines extant and historical variation and diversity, standing genetic and phenotypic variability in populations, and past and ongoing natural selection in the wild. Also, it manipulates genotypes, phenotypes, and environments of evolving populations in the laboratory and field. Thus, evolutionary physiology represents the infusion of paradigms, techniques, and approaches of evolutionary biology, genetics, and systematics into physiology. The reciprocal infusion of physiological approaches into evolutionary biology and systematics can likewise have great value and is a future goal.
Inheritance is where physiology meets evolution
The Journal of Physiology, 2014
Physiology and evolutionary biology have developed as two separated disciplines, a separation that mirrored the hypothesis that the physiological and evolutionary processes could be decoupled. We argue that non‐genetic inheritance shatters the frontier between physiology and evolution, and leads to the coupling of physiological and evolutionary processes to a point where there exists a continuum between accommodation by phenotypic plasticity and adaptation by natural selection. This approach is also profoundly affecting the definition of the concept of phenotypic plasticity, which should now be envisaged as a multi‐scale concept. We further suggest that inclusive inheritance provides a quantitative way to help bridging infra‐individual (i.e. physiology) with supra‐individual (i.e. evolution) approaches, in a way that should help building the long sough inclusive evolutionary synthesis.