Evolutionary Biology

Preface xi About the Authors xiii 1 THE CELLULAR ORIGIN OF VERTEBRATES 1 The Origins of Unicellular Life on Earth 1 Prokaryotes versus Eukaryotes 4 Coevolution of traits 5 Cholesterol Facilitates Lipid Rafts for Cell–Cell Communication 7 The Endomembrane System 9 The Cellular Mechanism of Evolution 10 Why Evolve? 11 Cell–Cell Communication and Aging 12 2 REDUCING LUNG PHYSIOLOGY TO ITS MOLECULAR PHENOTYPES 17 Hormonal Acceleration of Lung Development 17 Neutral Lipid Traffi cking and Lung Evolution 19 Other Examples of Cellular Cooperativity 23 Summary 24 3 A CELL–MOLECULAR STRATEGY FOR SOLVING THE EVOLUTIONARY PUZZLE 25 Rationale for Cell–Molecular Evolution 25 Mechanism of Mammalian Lung Development 28 Avian Lung Structure–Function Relationship: The Exception that Proves the Rule 32 Does Ontogeny Recapitulate Phylogeny? The Role of PTHrP in Lung Development 32 Interrelationship between PTHrP, Development, Physiology, and Repair: Is Repair a Recapitulation of Ontogeny and Phylogeny? 33 4 THE EVOLUTION OF CELL–CELL COMMUNICATION 35 Cell–Cell Communication as the Mechanistic Basis for Evolutionary Biology 36 The Darwinian Biologic Spacetime Continuum and Einstein’s Vision of the Universe 37 Reverse Engineering of Physiologic Traits as a Portal for Viewing Evolution 38 Cell–Cell Communication as the Basis for the Evolution of Metazoans 41 Understanding Lung Evolution from the Middle Out 42 The Cell–Cell Communication Model of Lung Evolution Traces Contemporary Phenotypes Back to Ancestral Phenotypes 43 Predictive Value of the Lung Cell–Cell Communication Model for Understanding the Evolution of Physiologic Systems 44 Sexual Dimorphism of Lung Development: A Case Study in Cell–Cell Communication and Evolutionary Plasticity 46 Androgen Affects the Expression of Growth Factors Involved in Lung Development 48 Evidence for an Association between Steroid-Resistant/Responsive Phenotypes and Human Lymphocyte Antigen (HLA) Haplotypes 49 5 HOW TO INTEGRATE CELL-MOLECULAR DEVELOPMENT, HOMEOSTASIS, ECOLOGY, AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY: THE MISSING LINKS 53 Neutral Theory versus Intelligent Design 54 Internal Selection Theory 54 The Counterintuitive Nature of Physiology and Solution to the Dead Sea Scrolls Puzzle 57 The Continuum from Microevolution to Macroevolution 58 cis Regulation and Adaptive Evolution 69 Evolution of cis Regulatory Mechanisms 70 6 FROM CELL–CELL COMMUNICATION TO THE EVOLUTION OF INTEGRATED PHYSIOLOGY 75 Cell–cell Signaling and Alveolar Development: A Reductionist Approach to the Evolution of Physiologic Traits 77 An Integrated, Empiric, Middle–Out Approach to Physiology 79 A Molecular Evolutionary Link between the Lung and the Kidney? 82 The Berner Hypothesis and Emergence of the Adipocyte: The Evolutionary Origins of the Lipofi broblast 83 Lung Biology as a Cipher for Evolution 85 Do Stretch Effects on PTHrP Expression Reflect Its Role in Adapting to Gravity? 85 Wolff’s Law Works for Both Bone and Lung 88 Functional Relationship between the External and Internal Environments 89 An Evolutionary Vertical Integration of the Phylogeny and Ontogeny of the Thyroid 91 7 EXPLOITING CELL–CELL COMMUNICATION ACROSS SPACETIME TO DECONSTRUCT EVOLUTION 95 Somewhere between the Gene and the Phenotype Lies the Process of Evolution 98 A Functional Genomic Approach to Evolution as an Example of Terminal Addition 100 Seeking Deep Homologies in Lung Evolution 102 Systems Biology Based on Cell–Cell Communication 105 Vertical Integration of Leptin Signaling, Human Evolution, and the Trojan Horse Effect 108 Leptin and Human Evolution: Food for Thought 109 8 THE PERIODIC TABLE OF BIOLOGY 115 The Prospect of a Periodic Table of Biology 115 Cellular Cooperation Is Key 116 Elemental Biology 118 PTHrP as an Archetype 118 Evolution as the Solution 119 Ramping Up a Mathematical Model of Evolution 121 The Anthropic Principle Results from the Evolution of Cell–Cell Interactions 124 9 VALUE ADDED BY THINKING IN TERMS OF THE CELL–CELL COMMUNICATION MODEL FOR EVOLUTION 125 This is Not a Just-So Story 126 Beyond Genomics 128 From Fat Cells to Integrated Physiology 128 Molecular Homologies Distinguish between the Evolutionary Forest and Trees 129 The Oxygen–Cholesterol–Surfactant–Membrane Connection 130 Cholesterol Metabolism as the Data Operating System for Vertebrate Biology? 131 Translation of Genomics into the Periodic Table for Biology 132 Deep Homologies 134 Selection Pressure for Cell–Cell Communication: The Key to Understanding Evolution 135 10 CELL–CELL COMMUNICATION AS THE BASIS FOR PRACTICING CLINICAL MEDICINE 139 Cell–Cell Communication Maintenance and Breakdown Represent Heath and Disease, Respectively 140 Cell–Cell Communications as a Framework for Human Evolution 140 Canalization, Decanalization, and the Holistic Approach to the Practice of Medicine 141 Exploiting Lung Evolution to Prevent and Treat Chronic Lung Disease 141 Lung Evolution Explains the Magic of Continuous Positive Airway Pressure 142 The Paradox of Infecting the Lung in Order to Treat Lung Disease Caused by Infection 143 Exploiting Lung Evolution to Prevent and Treat Smoking-Related Lung Damage 144 The Trojan Horse Effect of Canalization 145 Impetus for Evolutionary Science as an Integral Part of the Clinical Curriculum 146 Application of Evolutionary Science to Bioethics 147 Evolutionary Science, a Biologic Periodic Table, and a Unifi ed Theory of Biology 148 Summary 149 Name Index 151 Subject Index 153