ISBN : 9781605353449
The only book that, in one place:
- details the three main epigenetic sources of phenotype: symbionts, altered chromatin structure, and plasticity.
- discusses the various ways that development can be disrupted: teratogens, endocrine disruptors, global climate change, and mismatches between diet and environment.
- documents the evidence for an extended evolutionary synthesis involving the modern synthesis, evo-devo, and eco-evo-devo.
The revolution in molecular technologies has created a revolution in our perception of the living world. It is life, but not as we knew it.
* Symbiosis, once thought the exception to the rules of life, is now recognized as a signature of life, including its development and evolution. We function, develop, and possibly evolve as consortia.
* Developmental plasticity has transformed our ways of relating the genome to both the organism and its environment, showing that the environment can instruct, as well as select, phenotypes.
* Environmentally induced modifications of the genome (epialleles) can be created by ecological agents and inherited for many generations, showing the ability of environmental agents to generate selectable variation.
* Disease susceptibilities—especially to diseases such as cancer, diabetes, asthma, autism, and obesity—may be inherited through epialleles caused by environmental agents, by mismatches in developmental plasticity, or by particular combinations of symbionts.
* Global climate change and endocrine disruptors are affecting how organisms develop and how they behave.
The science studying this new world, uncovering the relationships between genes, developing organisms, and their environments, is called ecological developmental biology. This book presents the data for ecological developmental biology, integrating it into new accounts of medicine, evolution, and embryology.
The new evolutionary science created by this approach to nature is called ecological evolutionary developmental biology (eco-evo-devo). The book documents the evidence for a new, extended, evolutionary synthesis, a synthesis that: confounds the creationist belief that evolution can't be described above the species-level; integrates aging and "Western" diseases such as diabetes, atherosclerosis, cancer, and obesity into an evolutionary context; and sees interspecies interactions both within the organism and between organisms as being critical for evolution, development, and fitness.
Part 1. Environmental Modes of Normal Development
1. Developmental Plasticity: The Environment as a Normal Agent in Producing Phenotypes
2. Environmental Epigenetics: How Agents in the Environment Effect Molecular Changes in Development
3. Developmental Symbiosis: Co-Development as a Strategy for Life
Part 2. Ecological Developmental Biology and Disease States
4. Developmental Physiology for Survival in Changing Environments
5. Teratogenesis: Environmental Assaults on Development
6. Endocrine Disruptors
7. The Developmental Origin of Adult Diseases
8. Developmental Models of Cancer and Aging
Part 3. Toward a Developmental Evolutionary Synthesis
9. The Modern Synthesis: Natural Selection of Allelic Variation
10. Evolution through Developmental Regulatory Genes
11. Environment, Development, and Evolution: Toward a New Evolutionary Synthesis
Coda: Philosophical Concerns Raised by Ecological Developmental Biology
"This second edition, written by two of its pioneers, serves as a primer to the field and is intended for advanced undergraduate students, although it is equally appropriate for graduate students, faculty, and the broader public. The book is written in an engaging, clear, accessible prose, and richly illustrated with hundreds of high-quality images and graphs. This is a well-written and valuable volume, which deserves to be not just on bookshelves, but to be read by anyone interested in why and how development and evolution unfold the way they do." - Sofía Casasa and Armin P. Moczek, The Quarterly Review of Biology
"The degree to which genetics and the environment affect organismal development is an important question. Ecological Developmental Biology articulates this topic for today's researcher by integrating modern environmental issues such as climate change and pollution with disparate fields of modern biology. Ecological Developmental Biology is a good companion for the undergraduate or graduate interested in dwelling not only at the crossroads of molecular and ecological-based biology, but also in fields of public policy and philosophy." - Brenden Barco, Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine
"This is an ambitious, largely successful incorporation of new discoveries and rediscoveries into biology. The book is aimed at students and professionals who wish to understand their subdisciplines in a broader ecological, evolutionary, and social context." - J. Burger, CHOICE
"This is a book that deserves to be read. It presents complex information clearly and engagingly, in context and with the citations of the primary literature that an instructor needs to add depth to a topic." - F. Harvey Pough, Rochester Institute of Technology
