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The book covers the possible story of emergence of life and its subsequent evolution, emphasizing the necessary evolutionary step negotiation of a common "language set" which kept all inhabitants in the biosphere together, ensuring a basic level of understanding among them. The book focuses on "protocols of communication" (both genetic and epigenetic) representing norms shared and understood across the whole biosphere, enabling a plethora of holobiotic relationships. Cooperative nature of organismal evolution and epigenetic processes as a major force in evolution are also covered. Topics discussed are illustrated in detail on selected casuistics.
List of contents
Introduction
The Manifold of Prebiotic Evolution
Preconditions
Metabolism First
Replicators’ – Code first
Life from Nonlife: Establishing Rules and Codes
Proteins
‘Universal Cell’
Life Is
Pillars and itinerary of the biosphere
Biospheric games
Towards a New Manifold: The Biosphere
Dating Life’s Appearance
Origins: Biosphere LUCA
Reconstructing the Past, Making Sense of the Present
Concepts of Heredity and Theories of Evolution
Descent with Modification
J. B. Lamarck
After Lamarck: Organic Memory
Experimental Embryology
Units of Heredity
The Age of DNA
Modern Synthesis
Evolutionary Developmental Biology
Phylotypic Stage
Modularity
The Rise of Epigenetics
Phenotypic Plasticity
Organistic System Approach
The "Phenotype First" Approach
Niche Construction
Philosophical Approaches
Philosophical Turnoff on Causality
New Dimensions of Diversity
On Digital
Shaping DNA
Proteins
The Hairball
Targeted Epimutations
Combing the Shapes of Nucleic Acids
Protein Modularity
Unrooted in the Norm yet Faithful to It
Information Boom
Quorum Sensing
Signal Transduction
Chance, Necessity, and Gratuity
Processing and Responding
Simplexity
Morphogenesis
The Tradition of the New
Multicellularity
Phylotype again
Transgenerational Epigenetic Inheritance
Biased Mutations
Evolution by Cooperation: Communication between Different Lineages of Life
On Lichens, Squids, and Coral Bleaching
Protists
Intracellular Symbiosis in Multicellular Organisms
Mycorrhiza
Bacterial Consortia
Mimetic Rings
I, Holobiont
Human Holobiont
Variation in Microbiome Within Individuals
Colonization Determinants
Functions of Microbiome
Fecal Transplants
Holobiont as a Unit of Selection
Criticism
Life as interpretation
The Nine-Word Game
Species as Cultures
References
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About the author
Anton Markoš (1949), is a biologist at the Charles University in Prague, Czechia (department of philosophy and history of science). He works and teaches cell biology, theoretical and evolutionary biology. His books in English are Readers of the Book of Life (2002) and (with co-authors) Life as Its Own Designer (2009). Recently published papers include subjects such as in epigenetics, biosemiotics, language metaphor of life, and morphogenesis of bacterial colonies.
Jana Švorcová (1982) studied both philosophy and theoretical and evolutionary biology at Charles University, and currently works at the same department as Anton Markoš, her former supervisor. Švorcová teaches theoretical biology and publishes papers concerning non-genetic inheritance, evo-devo and philosophy of biology.
Summary
This book covers the possible story of emergence of life and its subsequent evolution, emphasizing the necessary evolutionary step – negotiation of a common “language set” which kept all inhabitants in biosphere together, ensuring a basic level of understanding among them.
