Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T06:31:03.071Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Fitness and Individuality in Complex Life Cycles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Matthew D. Herron
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Complex life cycles are common in the eukaryotic world, and they complicate the question of how to define individuality. Using a bottom-up, gene-centric approach, I consider the concept of fitness in the context of complex life cycles. I analyze the fitness effects of an allele (or a trait) on different biological units within a complex life history and how these effects drive evolutionary change within populations. Based on these effects, I attempt to construct a concept of fitness that accurately predicts evolutionary change in the context of complex life cycles.

Type
Complex Life Cycles and Reproduction
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 83 , Issue 5 , December 2016 , pp. 828 - 834
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.)

Footnotes

†

I would like to thank Maureen O’Malley, Peter Godfrey-Smith, and James Griesemer for organizing the symposium. During this work, I was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the NASA Astrobiology Institute and by grants from the John Templeton Foundation (43285), the NASA Astrobiology Institute (Cooperative Agreement Notice 7), and the National Science Foundation (DEB-1457701).

References

Borges, F., Gomes, G., Gardner, R., Moreno, N., McCormick, S., Feijó, J. A., and Becker, J. D.. 2008. “Comparative Transcriptomics of Arabidopsis Sperm Cells.” Plant Physiology 148:1168–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Charrier, B., Coelho, S. M., Bail, A. Le, Tonon, T., Michel, G., Potin, P., Kloareg, B., Boyen, C., Peters, A. F., and Cock, J. M.. 2008. “Development and Physiology of the Brown Alga Ectocarpus siliculosus: Two Centuries of Research.” New Phytologist 177:319–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clarke, E. 2010. “The Problem of Biological Individuality.” Biological Theory 5:312–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engel, M. L., Holmes-Davis, R., and McCormick, S.. 2005. “Green Sperm. Identification of Male Gamete Promoters in Arabidopsis.” Plant Physiology 138:2124–33.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Erickson, R. P. 1990. “Post-meiotic Gene Expression.” Trends in Genetics 6:264–68.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fjeld, A. 1972. “Genetic Control of Cellular Differentiation in Ulva mutabilis. Gene Effects in Early Development.” Developmental Biology 28:326–43.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Folse, H. J., and Roughgarden, J.. 2010. “What Is an Individual Organism? A Multilevel Selection Perspective.” Quarterly Review of Biology 85:447–72.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Föyn, B. 1958. “Über die Sexualität und den Generationswechsel von Ulva mutabilis (N.S.).” Archiv für Protistenkunde. 102:473–80.Google Scholar
Godfrey-Smith, P. 2009. Darwinian Populations and Natural Selection. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Godfrey-Smith, P. 2012. “Darwinian Individuals.” In From Groups to Individuals: Perspectives on Biological Associations and Emerging Individuality, ed. Bouchard, F. and Huneman, P., 1–25. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Huneman, P. 2014. “Individuality and Life Cycles.” In Individuals across the Sciences, ed. Pradeu, T. and Guay, A., 1–20. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gou, X., Yuan, T., Wei, X., and Russell, S. D.. 2009. “Gene Expression in the Dimorphic Sperm Cells of Plumbago zeylanica: Transcript Profiling, Diversity, and Relationship to Cell Type.” Plant Journal 60:33–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Griffiths, P. E., and Gray, R. D.. 1994. “Developmental Systems and Evolutionary Explanation.” Journal of Philosophy 91:277–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hendriksen, P. J., Hoogerbrugge, J. W., Themmen, A. P., Koken, M. H., Hoeijmakers, J. H., Oostra, B. A., van der Lende, T., and Grootegoed, J. A.. 1995. “Postmeiotic Transcription of X and Y Chromosomal Genes during Spermatogenesis in the Mouse.” Developmental Biology 170:730–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herron, M. D., Rashidi, A., Shelton, D. E., and Driscoll, W. W.. 2013. “Cellular Differentiation and Individuality in the ‘Minor’ Multicellular Taxa.” Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society 88:844–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hoxmark, R. C., and Nordby, Ø.. 1974. “Haploid Meiosis as a Regular Phenomenon in the Life Cycle of Ulva mutabilis.” Hereditas 76:239–50.Google ScholarPubMed
Metz, J. A. J. 2013. “On the Concept of Individual in Ecology and Evolution.” Journal of Mathematical Biology 66:635–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Polne-Fuller, M., and Gibor, A.. 1984. “Developmental Studies in Porphyra. I. Blade Differentiation in Porphyra perforata as Expressed by Morphology, Enzymatic Digestion, and Protoplast Regeneration.” Journal of Phycology 20:609–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strassmann, J. E., and Queller, D. C.. 2010. “The Social Organism: Congresses, Parties, and Committees.” Evolution 64:605–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Torgerson, D. G., and Singh, R. S.. 2006. “Enhanced Adaptive Evolution of Sperm-Expressed Genes on the Mammalian X Chromosome.” Heredity 96:39–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wilson, J. 1999. Biological Individuality: The Identity and Persistence of Living Entities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar