TY - JOUR
T1 - The Comet Cometh
T2 - Evolving Developmental Systems
AU - Jaeger, Johannes
AU - Laubichler, Manfred
AU - Callebaut, Werner
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Adam Wilkins and Nick Monk for inspiring discussions, and an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments. JJ thanks Alistair McGregor for feedback and proofreading of the sections on micro-EvoDevo. It should go without saying that all of the opinions and mistakes in this paper are ours, not theirs.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015, The Author(s).
PY - 2015/3
Y1 - 2015/3
N2 - In a recent opinion piece, Denis Duboule has claimed that the increasing shift towards systems biology is driving evolutionary and developmental biology apart, and that a true reunification of these two disciplines within the framework of evolutionary developmental biology (EvoDevo) may easily take another 100 years. He identifies methodological, epistemological, and social differences as causes for this supposed separation. Our article provides a contrasting view. We argue that Duboule’s prediction is based on a one-sided understanding of systems biology as a science that is only interested in functional, not evolutionary, aspects of biological processes. Instead, we propose a research program for an evolutionary systems biology, which is based on local exploration of the configuration space in evolving developmental systems. We call this approach—which is based on reverse engineering, simulation, and mathematical analysis—the natural history of configuration space. We discuss a number of illustrative examples that demonstrate the past success of local exploration, as opposed to global mapping, in different biological contexts. We argue that this pragmatic mode of inquiry can be extended and applied to the mathematical analysis of the developmental repertoire and evolutionary potential of evolving developmental mechanisms and that evolutionary systems biology so conceived provides a pragmatic epistemological framework for the EvoDevo synthesis.
AB - In a recent opinion piece, Denis Duboule has claimed that the increasing shift towards systems biology is driving evolutionary and developmental biology apart, and that a true reunification of these two disciplines within the framework of evolutionary developmental biology (EvoDevo) may easily take another 100 years. He identifies methodological, epistemological, and social differences as causes for this supposed separation. Our article provides a contrasting view. We argue that Duboule’s prediction is based on a one-sided understanding of systems biology as a science that is only interested in functional, not evolutionary, aspects of biological processes. Instead, we propose a research program for an evolutionary systems biology, which is based on local exploration of the configuration space in evolving developmental systems. We call this approach—which is based on reverse engineering, simulation, and mathematical analysis—the natural history of configuration space. We discuss a number of illustrative examples that demonstrate the past success of local exploration, as opposed to global mapping, in different biological contexts. We argue that this pragmatic mode of inquiry can be extended and applied to the mathematical analysis of the developmental repertoire and evolutionary potential of evolving developmental mechanisms and that evolutionary systems biology so conceived provides a pragmatic epistemological framework for the EvoDevo synthesis.
KW - Dynamical systems theory
KW - Epistemology
KW - Evolutionary developmental biology (EvoDevo)
KW - Evolutionary systems biology
KW - Natural history of configuration space
KW - Scientific perspectivism
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U2 - 10.1007/s13752-015-0203-5
DO - 10.1007/s13752-015-0203-5
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84965063516
SN - 1555-5542
VL - 10
SP - 36
EP - 49
JO - Biological Theory
JF - Biological Theory
IS - 1
ER -