Polyploidy - whole-genome duplication (WGD) - is a fundamental driver of biodiversity with significant consequences for genome structure, organization, and evolution. Once considered a speciation process common only in plants, polyploidy is now recognized to have played a major role in the structure, gene content, and evolution of most eukaryotic genomes. In fact, the diversity of eukaryotes seems closely tied to multiple WGDs. Polyploidy generates new genomic interactions - initially resulting in "genomic and transcriptomic shock" - that must be resolved in a new polyploid lineage. This process essentially acts as a "reset" button, resulting in genomic changes that may ultimately promote adaptive speciation. This book brings together for the first time the conceptual and theoretical underpinnings of polyploid genome evolution with syntheses of the patterns and processes of genome evolution in diverse polyploid groups. Because polyploidy is most common and best studied in plants, the book emphasizes plant models, but recent studies of vertebrates and fungi are providing fresh perspectives on factors that allow polyploid speciation and shape polyploid genomes. The emerging paradigm is that polyploidy - through alterations in genome structure and gene regulation - generates genetic and phenotypic novelty that manifests itself at the chromosomal, physiological, and organismal levels, with long-term ecological and evolutionary consequences.

Biology of Termites, a Modern Synthesis brings together the major advances in termite biology, phylogenetics, social evolution and biogeography. In this new volume, David Bignell, Yves Roisin and Nathan Lo have brought together leading experts on termite taxonomy, behaviour, genetics, caste differentiation, physiology, microbiology, mound architecture, biogeography and control. Very strong evolutionary and developmental themes run through the individual chapters, fed by new data streams from molecular sequencing, and for the first time it is possible to compare the social organisation of termites with that of the social Hymenoptera, focusing on caste determination, population genetics, cooperative behaviour, nest hygiene and symbioses with microorganisms. New chapters have been added on termite pheromones, termites as pests of agriculture and on destructive invasive species.

The concept of this book arises from a symposium entitled "Human-Macaque Interactions: Traditional and Modern Perspectives on Cooperation and Conflict " organized at the 23rd Congress of the International Primatological Society, that was held in Kyoto in September 2010. The symposium highlighted the many aspects of human-macaque relations and some of the participants were invited to contribute to this volume. The volume will include about 11 chapters by a variety of international authors and some excerpts from published literature that illustrate cultural notions of macaques. Contributions from invited authors will engage with four main perspectives - traditional views of macaques, cooperative relationships between humans and macaques, current scenarios of human-macaque conflict, and how living with and beside humans has affected macaques. Authors will address these concerns through their research findings and reviews of their work on the Asian, and the lone African, macaques.

Timing, racing, combating, struggling and targeting are some actions through which cellular fate could be reflected and evaluated. Interaction between cell territory and environment occur during pre-embryonic, fetal development, and post-natal periods. What the researchers observe as the outcome of telomeres behavior is only the peak of an ice mountain within a stormy ocean. Cellular life depends on programmed behavior of telomeres, capable to surprise the cells. Telomeres provide an introduction to the history of our cells which govern the quality of life and status of health. Telomeres as the cooperative territory are capable of stabilizing the chromosomal territory. The status of telomeres reflects the key information, announcing the real age of individuals, and may be a valuable marker for prognosis and predicting cancer. Telomere territory is characterized with a multi-disciplinary manner. Therefore, this book is aimed to offer a wide range of chapters, hoping to be useful for diverse audiences, including hematologists-oncologists, radiotherapists, surgeons, cancer researchers, and all the sectors who affect the macro- and micro- environmental domains. Finally, telomeres are sensitive, cooperative, and trustable targets. It is worth to state that 'telomeres are messengers of NATURE', let's to know them as they are.

Scientists no longer accept the existence of a distinct moral organ as phrenologists once did. A generation of young neurologists is using advanced technological medical equipment to unravel specific brain processes enabling moral cognition. In addition, evolutionary psychologists have formulated hypotheses about the origins and nature of our moral architecture. Little by little, the concept of a 'moral brain' is reinstated. As the crossover between disciplines focusing on moral cognition was rather limited up to now, this book aims at filling the gap. Which evolutionary biological hypotheses provide a useful framework for starting new neurological research? How can brain imaging be used to corroborate hypotheses concerning the evolutionary background of our species? In this reader, a broad range of prominent scientists and philosophers shed their expert view on the current accomplishments and future challenges in the field of moral cognition and assess how cooperation between neurology and evolutionary psychology can boost research into the field of the moral brain.

From 1965-1968, I held an Agricultural Research Council Research Fellowship at Christ's College, Cambridge. Later in 1981, when I was a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge and renewed my contacts with Christ's College, my friend and colleague David Coombe, a Fellow of Christ's College, informed me that a collection of letters of Charles Darwin had just been - covered in the Library storeroom, underneath the College. I had always maintained an interest in Charles Darwin, from the early age of thirteen, when I had rst read his books, with I might say some dif culty! This collection was the 155 letters of Charles Darwin to his second cousin William Darwin Fox, which had been given in trust to the College, in 1909, by members of the Fox family at the time of the Darwin Centenary celebrations. I was allowed access to these 155 letters and at that time made my own tr- scriptions. It seemed to me that this was a magni cent account of the lives of two naturalists of the nineteenth century, starting at the time that they were at Christ's together, in 1828, and going to 1880 when W D Fox died - just two years short of the death of Charles Darwin in 1882. Of course this valuable resource had not gone unnoticed before. Darwin's son, Francis Darwin had been given the letters in the 1880s, when he was preparing his Life and Letters of Charles Darwin in 3 volumes.

Heterogeneous Enantioselective Hydrogenation: Theory and Practice reviews the development of enantioselective hydrogenation reaction catalysts. It looks at the first relatively ineffective catalysts right through to modern highly effective enantioselective catalytic systems, comparable in their efficiency to chiral metal complexes and enzymatic systems. The book begins with a summary of the first work on heterogeneous metal catalysts, which showed only the principal possibilities of enantioselective reactions. It then elaborates on metal catalysts which have enantioselectivities close to 100%. Finally, the practical utilization of chiral catalytic systems in processes of hydrogenation is described. The alpha- and beta-hydroxy carboxylic acid esters produced are precursors for manufacturing many synthones used for medicines as well as for monomers used for biodegradable polyesters, both of which have important practical applications. The volume summarizes more than 800 scientific papers in the field of enantioselective catalytic hydrogenation reactions, mainly those using heterogeneous metal catalysts. It provides detailed explanations of special techniques for the preparation of effective dissymmetric catalysts which provide highly efficient catalytic systems.

Fifty thousand years ago--merely a blip in evolutionary time--our "Homo sapiens" ancestors were competing for existence with several other human species, just as their precursors had done for millions of years. Yet something about our species distinguished it from the pack, and ultimately led to its survival while the rest became extinct. Just what was it that allowed "Homo sapiens" to become masters of the planet? Ian Tattersall, curator emeritus at the American Museum of Natural History, takes us deep into the fossil record to uncover what made humans so special. Surveying a vast field from initial bipedality to language and intelligence, Tattersall argues that "Homo sapiens" acquired a winning combination of traits that was not the result of long-term evolutionary refinement. Instead, the final result emerged quickly, shocking our world and changing it forever.

Mitochondria and chloroplasts are eukaryotic organelles that evolved from bacterial ancestors and harbor their own genomes. The gene products of these genomes work in concert with those of the nuclear genome to ensure proper organelle metabolism and biogenesis. This book explores the forces that have shaped the evolution of organelle genomes and the expression of the genes encoded by them. Some striking examples of trends in organelle evolution explored here are the reduction in genome size and gene coding content observed in most lineages, the complete loss of organelle DNA in certain lineages, and the unusual modes of gene expression that have emerged, such as the extensive and essential mRNA editing that occurs in plant mitochondria and chloroplasts. This book places particular emphasis on the current techniques used to study the evolution of organelle genomes and gene expression.

In this monograph, new combinatorial and computational approaches in the study of RNA structures are presented which enhance both mathematics and computational biology. It begins with an introductory chapter, which motivates and sets the background of this research. In the following chapter, all the concepts are systematically developed. The reader will find * integration of more than forty research papers covering topics like, RSK-algorithm, reflection principle, singularity analysis and random graph theory * systematic presentation of the theory of pseudo-knotted RNA structures including their generating function, uniform generation as well as central and discrete limit theorems * computational biology of pseudo-knotted RNA structures, including dynamic programming paradigms and a new folding algorithm * analysis of neutral networks of pseudo knotted RNA structures and their random graph theory, including neutral paths, giant components and connectivity All algorithms presented are freely available through springer.com and implemented in C. A proofs section at the end contains the necessary technicalities. This book will serve graduate students and researchers in the fields of discrete mathematics, mathematical and computational biology. It is suitable as a textbook for a graduate course in mathematical and computational biology.

If theoretical physicists can seriously entertain canonical "standard models" even for the big-bang generation of the entire universe, why cannot life scientists reach a consensus on how life has emerged and settled on this planet? Scientists are hindered by conceptual gaps between bottom-up inferences (from early Earth geological conditions) and top-down extrapolations (from modern life forms to common ancestral states). This book challenges several widely held assumptions and argues for alternative approaches instead. Primal syntheses (literally or figuratively speaking) are called for in at least five major areas. (1) The first RNA-like molecules may have been selected by solar light as being exceptionally photostable. (2) Photosynthetically active minerals and reduced phosphorus compounds could have efficiently coupled the persistent natural energy flows to the primordial metabolism. (3) Stochastic, uncoded peptides may have kick-started an ever-tightening co-evolution of proteins and nucleic acids. (4) The living fossils from the primeval RNA World thrive within modern cells. (5) From the inherently complex protocellular associations preceding the consolidation of integral genomes, eukaryotic cell organization may have evolved more naturally than simple prokaryote-like life forms. - If this book can motivate dedicated researchers to further explore the alternative mechanisms presented, it will have served its purpose well.

This volume celebrates the contributions of Dr. Eugene Gaffney to the study of turtles, through a diverse and complementary collection of papers that showcases the latest research on one of the most intriguing groups of reptiles. A mix of focused and review papers deals with numerous aspects of the evolutionary history of turtles, including embryonic development, origins, early diversification, phylogenetic relationships, and biogeography. Moreover it includes reports on important but poorly understood fossil turtle assemblages, provides historical perspectives on turtle research, and documents disease and variation in turtles. With its broad scope, which includes descriptions of material and new taxa from Australia, Asia, and Europe, as well as North and South America, this work will be an essential resource for anyone interested in the morphology and evolution of turtles. "This volume's breadth of time, geography, and taxonomic coverage makes it a major contribution to the field and a 'must have' for all vertebrate paleontologists.", James F. Parham, California State University, CA, USA "A comprehensive and sweeping overview of turtle evolution by the top experts in the field that will interest everyone curious about these unique reptiles." Jason S. Anderson, University of Calgary, Canada "An invaluable addition to the literature that covers the full spectrum of approaches toward understanding the evolution of these noble creatures." Ann C. Burke, Wesleyan University, CT , USA "A truly comprehensive volume that both the student of fossil turtles, as well as the general reader interested in these enigmatic creatures, will find fascinating." Tyler Lyson, Yale University, CT, USA

This volume is part of the definitive edition of letters written by and to Charles Darwin, the most celebrated naturalist of the nineteenth century. Notes and appendixes put these fascinating and wide-ranging letters in context, making the letters accessible to both scholars and general readers. Darwin depended on correspondence to collect data from all over the world, and to discuss his emerging ideas with scientific colleagues, many of whom he never met in person. The letters are published chronologically: Volume 21 includes letters from 1873, the year in which Darwin received responses to his work on human and animal expression. Also in this year, Darwin continued his work on carnivorous plants and plant movement, finding unexpected similarities between the plant and animal kingdoms, raised a subscription for his friend Thomas Henry Huxley, and decided to employ a scientific secretary for the first time - his son Francis.

For the first time, a synthesis on the research work done in Europe on all Bark And Wood Boring Insects In Living Trees (BAWBILT) is presented. As final product of a four-year research project gathering together 100 scientists from 24 countries, the book is the fruit of a real collective synthesis in which all European specialists have participated. It reviews and comments on all the European literature, while considering the biological (trees, insects, associated organisms, and their relationships) and forest management aspects. However, although focused on the European forest, it also compares the available information and interpretations to those concerning similar species in other continents. It ends with propositions of research priorities for Europe. The book is directed to all scientists and students concerned with forest entomology and ecology, as well as to forest managers and all scientific public interested in forest biology.

Exploring how information is more fundamental than energy, matter, space, or time, Jude Currivan, Ph.D., examines the latest research across many fields of study and many scales of existence to show how our Universe is in-formed and holographically manifested. She explains how the fractal in-formational patterns that guide behavior at the atomic level also guide the structure of galactic clusters in space. She demonstrates how the in-formational relationships that underlie earthquakes are the same as those that play out during human conflicts. She shows how cities grow in the same in-formational ways that galaxies evolve and how the dynamic in-formational forms that pervade ecosystems are identical to the informational structures of the Internet and our social behaviors. Demonstrating how information is physically real, the author explores how consciousness connects us to the many interconnected layers of universal in-formation, making us both manifestations and co-creators of the cosmic hologram of reality. She explains how Quantum Mechanics and Einstein's Theory of Relativity can at last be reconciled if we consider energy-matter and space-time as complementary expressions of information, and she explores how the cosmic hologram underlies the true origin of species and our own evolution.

Life is a diverse and ubiquitous phenomenon on Earth, characterized by fundamental features distinguishing living bodies from nonliving material. Yet it is also so complex that it has long defied precise definition. This book from a seasoned biologist offers new insights into the nature of life by illuminating a fascinating architecture of dualities inherent in its existence and propagation. Life is connected with individual living beings, yet it is also a collective and inherently global phenomenon of the material world. It embodies a dual existence of cycles of phenotypic life, and their unseen driver - an uninterrupted march of genetic information whose collective immortality is guaranteed by individual mortality. Although evolution propagates and tunes species of organisms, the beings produced can be regarded merely as tools for the survival and cloning of genomes written in an unchanging code. What are the physical versus informational bases and driving forces of life, and how do they unite as an integrated system? What does time mean for individuals, life on the global scale, and the underlying information? This accessible examination of principles and evidence shows that a network of dualities lies at the heart of biological puzzles that have engaged the human mind for millennia.

Fungi are sessile, highly sensitive organisms that actively compete for environmental resources both above and below the ground. They assess their surroundings, estimate how much energy they need for particular goals, and then realise the optimum variant. They take measures to control certain environmental resources. They perceive themselves and can distinguish between 'self' and 'non-self'. They process and evaluate information and then modify their behaviour accordingly. These highly diverse competences show us that this is possible owing to sign(aling)-mediated communication processes within fungal cells (intraorganismic), between the same, related and different fungal species (interorganismic), and between fungi and non-fungal organisms (transorganismic). Intraorganismic communication involves sign-mediated interactions within cells (intracellular) and between cells (intercellular). This is crucial in coordinating growth and development, shape and dynamics. Such communication must function both on the local level and between widely separated mycelium parts. This allows fungi to coordinate appropriate response behaviors in a differentiated manner to their current developmental status and physiological influences.

Evolutionary psychiatry attempts to explain and examine the development and prevalence of psychiatric disorders through the lens of evolutionary and adaptationist theories. In this edited volume, leading international evolutionary scholars present a variety of Darwinian perspectives that will encourage readers to consider 'why' as well as 'how' mental disorders arise. Using insights from comparative animal evolution, ethology, anthropology, culture, philosophy and other humanities, evolutionary thinking helps us to re-evaluate psychiatric epidemiology, genetics, biochemistry and psychology. It seeks explanations for persistent heritable traits shaped by selection and other evolutionary processes, and reviews traits and disorders using phylogenetic history and insights from the neurosciences as well as the effects of the modern environment. By bridging the gap between social and biological approaches to psychiatry, and encouraging bringing the evolutionary perspective into mainstream psychiatry, this book will help to inspire new avenues of research into the causation and treatment of mental disorders.

***30th Anniversary Edition*** Acclaimed as the most influential work on evolution written in the last hundred years, The Blind Watchmaker offers an inspiring and accessible introduction to one of the most important scientific discoveries of all time. A brilliant and controversial book which demonstrates that evolution by natural selection - the unconscious, automatic, blind yet essentially non-random process discovered by Darwin - is the only answer to the biggest question of all: why do we exist?

This book summarises the newest information on seasonal adaptation in animals. Topics include animal hibernation, daily torpor, thermoregulation, heat production, metabolic depression, biochemical adaptations, neurophysiology and energy balance. The contributors to this book present interdisciplinary research at multiple levels ranging from the molecular to the ecophysiological, as well as evolutionary approaches. The chapters of this book provide original data not published elsewhere, which makes it the most up-to-date, comprehensive source of information on these fields.

The book s subchapters correspond to presentations given at the 14th International Hibernation Symposium in August 2012 in Austria. This is a very successful series of symposia (held every four years since 1959) that attracts leading researchers in the field. Like the past symposia, this meeting and consequently the book is aimed not only at hibernation but at covering the full range of animal adaptations to seasonal environments. For the next four years, this book will serve as the cutting-edge reference work for graduate students and scientists active in this field of physiology and ecology.."

The fIrst draft version of this book, written in systematics of Neoptera) had two different editions English and named "Draft revision of supraspecies in Russian - in 1999 and in 2000 (Kluge 2000). taxa of Ephemeroptera (without Atalophlebiinae)," English version of this fIrst volume is also prepared, was prepared as an Internet publication in 1998; but not published yet. thanks to Dr. Michael Hubbard (Florida A & M Uni versity), it has been available from the web site "Ephemeroptera Galactica" since 1998. The second NEW TERMS, TAXA NAMES AND version, written in Russian and named "Revision of SYNONYMS supra-species taxa of Ephemeroptera (except for Atalophlebialfgl)," was prepared as an Internet publication in 2000; from 2001 till now it has been New terms: plesiomorphon (instead of wrongly available from the web site of Biological Faculty of used "plesion," p. 16); basitornal margin, tornoapical S-Petersburg University, http: //www. bio. pu. ruJwinl margin, amphitornal margin of wing or wing bud entomollKLUGEIEPHEMER -"content_. htm. Both (p. 31); tergalius (instead of formerly used "tergalia" versions contain the systematics of all mayflies or "tergalium," p. 35); caudalius, tricaudale, basitri except for Atalophlebialfgl. The present Volume 1 caudale, cercotractor (p. 38). does not contain the systematics of Turbanoculata For some morphological terms type taxa are (i. e. Baetidae auct. ) nor of all Leptophlebialfg1 (i. e. designated. Till now this was not practised, but in Leptophlebiidae auct."

This anthology is a compilation of the best contributions from Symbolic Species Conferences I, II (which took place in 2006, 2007).

In 1997 the American anthropologist Terrence Deacon published The Symbolic Species: The Coevolution of Language and the Brain. The book is widely considered a seminal work in the subject of evolutionary cognition. However, Deacons book was the first step further steps have had to be taken. The proposed anthology is such an important associate.

The contributions are written by a wide variety of scholars each with a unique view on evolutionary cognition and the questions raised by Terrence Deacon - emergence in evolution, the origin of language, the semiotic 'missing link', Peirce's semiotics in evolution and biology, biosemiotics, evolutionary cognition, Baldwinian evolution, the neuroscience of linguistic capacities as well as phylogeny of the homo species, primatology, embodied cognition and knowledge types. "