| Reviews |
| - 'Evolution Through Genetic Exchange represents a compelling argument for a paradigm shift in evolutionary biology, in which the Tree of Life is replaced conceptually by a Web of Life that connects all living organisms and their genomes. The Quarterly Review of Biology' -
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| Description | | - Builds on the foundations of author's successful 1997 book for the Oxford Series in Ecology and Evolution
- First book on the rapidly expanding field of reticulate (non-treelike) or network evolution
- Incorporates examples from a broad range of taxa
- Discusses the reticulate evolutionary process and its anthropogenic effects on diseases, crops, and the environment
- Written by a top researcher in the field
| Even before the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species, the perception of evolutionary change has been a tree-like pattern of diversification - with divergent branches spreading further and further from the trunk. In the only illustration of Darwin's treatise, branches large and small never reconnect. However, it is now evident that this view does not adequately encompass the richness of
evolutionary pattern and process. Instead, the evolution of species from microbes to mammals builds like a web that crosses and re-crosses through genetic exchange, even as it grows outward from a point of origin. Some of the avenues for genetic exchange, for example introgression through sexual recombination versus lateral gene transfer mediated by transposable elements, are based on definably
different molecular mechanisms. However, even such widely different genetic processes may result in similar effects on adaptations (either new or transferred), genome evolution, population genetics, and the evolutionary/ecological trajectory of organisms. For example, the evolution of novel adaptations (resulting from lateral gene transfer) leading to the flea-borne, deadly, causative agent of
plague from a rarely-fatal, orally-transmitted, bacterial species is quite similar to the adaptations accrued from natural hybridization between annual sunflower species resulting in the formation of several new species. Thus, more and more data indicate that evolution has resulted in lineages consisting of mosaics of genes derived from different ancestors. It is therefore becoming increasingly
clear that the tree is an inadequate metaphor of evolutionary change. In this book, Arnold promotes the 'web-of-life' metaphor as a more appropriate representation of evolutionary change in all lifeforms.
This research level text is suitable for senior undergraduate and graduate level students taking related courses in departments of genetics, ecology and evolution. It will also be of relevance
and use to professional evolutionary biologists and systematists seeking a comprehensive and authoritative overview of this rapidly expanding field. |
Readership: New insights into the genetics, genomics, and ecology of hybrids have created a need for universities to include this topic in their study programmes in ecology and evolution. This advanced textbook will be suitable for senior undergraduate and graduate level students; there will also be a large secondary market amongst professional researchers seeking an authoritative overview of this rapidly expanding field.
| Contents |
Preface
1.
Genetic Exchange: History of Investigations
2.
Genetic Exchange: The Role of Species Concepts
3.
Genetic Exchange: Testing the Hypothesis
4.
Genetic Exchange: Barriers to Gene Flow
5.
Genetic Exchange: Hybrid Fitness
6.
Genetic Exchange: Gene Duplication
7.
Genetic Exchange: Origin of New Evolutionary Lineages
8.
Genetic Exchange: Implications For Endangered Taxa
9.
Genetic Exchange: Humans and Associated Lineages
10.
Genetic Exchange: Emergent Properties
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| Authors, editors,
and contributors |
Michael L. Arnold, Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens
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