1 / 23

Structure and Function

Structure and Function. Structure and Function in the Origin. S tructures developed through descent by modification modulated by natural selection. Connects structure with function through adaptation. Influence of Naturphilosophie. Archetype or Urplan Development of taxa within the plan.

hosea
Download Presentation

Structure and Function

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Structure and Function

  2. Structure and Function in the Origin Structures developed through descent by modification modulated by natural selection. Connects structure with function through adaptation.

  3. Influence of Naturphilosophie • Archetype or Urplan • Development of taxa within the plan Richard Owen 1804-1892, Britain

  4. Following Origin Determine evolutionary history by morphology • Similarities and differences between existing taxa • Construct phylogenies using paleontology Thomas Henry Huxley 1825-1895, Britain

  5. Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel • German naturalist • Expert on Radiolaria • Coined many common terms including Protista, Ecology, Phylogeny, Stem Cell • Developed Darwinism built on Naturphilosophie • Evolutionary Morphology: search for phylogenies based on form and development within structural constraints 1834-1919, Germany

  6. H.M.S Challenger • Supported, in part, by The Royal Society • Traveled 170,000 km samples from the surface to the bottom 1872-1876

  7. Kunst-Formen der Natur • Had been populizer of evolution • Artist and produced 100 plates in the form of Art Nouveau • Common ancestry explained repeated patterns in body plans

  8. Following the rediscovery of Mendel and the discovery of mutations, structural change due to random mutation forming hopeful monsters. Structural constraints not as important.

  9. TheodosiusGrygorovychDobdzansky • Initially, mutationist • Then, began to work on ADH in fruitflies. • Enough natural variation • Natural selection documented in fruitflies 1900-1975, Russian Empire and USA

  10. From Michael Ruse (2003) Now understand that living things have evolved within multiple constraints (as did Darwin): • Genetic constraints: • Does the gene produce product(s)? • Size of genome • Historical or phylogenetic constraints • Structural constraints: the task of putting together a functioning organism 1940-present, USA

  11. Genetic Constraints • Product(s) of the gene • Working product(s) • Pleiotropy • Size of genome • Related to complexity • Can determine size of the cell Rudolf Raff, 1941- present, USA

  12. Historical Constraints • Developmental constraints; earlier molecular characters fixed in the line • Need not be optimally adaptive • Homologies based on past history • Homeotic genes • Proteins that regulate structural genes • HOX genes (homologs in fruit flies, frogs, fish, mice, and humans) • Relationship between bauplan (urplan) and adaptation • Might be nonadaptive or maladaptive • Reduce importance of function in evolution

  13. Structural Constraints • Many characters are left over or allometric (ex: Irish Elk). • How do new characters form? • Unexpected structures can be co-opted (ex: feathers).

  14. D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson • On Growth and Form (1916) • Form over function • Form determined by physics of the environment (ex: aquatic organisms conform to a water-drop shape) • Thus, physics trumps adaptation 1860-1948, Scotland

  15. Radiolarian Evolution, Form and Function • Recognized as unicell with mineralized nested cytoskeleton elements • 2 Major groups: SiO2 and SrSO4 • Both have taxa that are bilaterally- or radially-symmetrical

  16. Structure and Function • Molecular phylogenetics • Molecules have form that is related to function • Confirms relationship Darwinian relationship between form and function thus connecting form to adaptation (natural selection) ML phylogeny based on SSU rRNA

  17. …natural selection has been invigorated and made healthier precisely because of the new emphasis on form, rather than despite it. -Michael Ruse

More Related