Microbial Phylogeny and Evolution: Concepts and Controversies

by Jan Sapp

Overview

The birth of bacterial genomics since the mid-1990s brought withit several conceptual modifications and wholly new controversies. Working beyond the scope of the neo-Darwinian evolutionary synthesis, a group of leading microbial evolutionists addresses the following and related issues, often with markedly varied viewpoints:

· Did the eukaryotic nucleus, cytoskeleton and cilia also orginate from symbiosis?
· Do the current scenarios about he origin of mitochondria and plastids require revision?
· What is the extent of lateral gene transfer (between "species") among bacteria?
· Does the rDNA phylogenetic tree still stand in the age of genomics?
· Is the course of the first 3 billion years of evolution even knowable?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195168778
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/03/2005
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	9.40(w) x 6.46(h) x 0.84(d)

About the Author

Jay Sapp is Professor of History of the Biological Sciences, Department of Biology, York University.

Table of Contents

Forward, Joshua Lederberg1. The Bacterium's Place in Nature, Jan Sapp2. The Large Scale Structure of the Tree of Life, Norman R. Pace3. The Molecular Phylogeny of Bacteria Based on Conserved Genes, Wolfgang Ludwig and Karl-Heinz Schleifer4. Evolving Biological Organization, Carl Woese5. If The Tree of Life Fell, Would it Make a Sound?, W. Ford Doolittle6. Woe is the Tree of Life, William Martin7. The Robustness of Intermediary Metabolism, Harold J. Morowitz, Daniel Broyles, and Howard Lasus8. Molecular Sequences and the Early History of Life, Radhey Gupta9. Fulfilling Darwin's Dream, James Lake, Jonathan E. Moore, Anne Simonson, and Maria C. Rivera10. Paradigm Lost, C.G. Kurland11. Contemporary Issues in Mitochondrial Origins and Evolution, Michael W. Gray12. On the Origin and Evolution of Plastids, John M. Archibald and Patrick J. Keeling13. The Karymastigont Model of Eukaryosis, Hannah Melnitsky, Frederick A. Rainey, and Lynn Margulis14. The Missing Piece: The Microtubole Cytoskeleton and the Origin of Eukaryotes, Michael F. Dolan15. Heritable Microorganisms and Reproductive Parasitism, John H. WerrenIndex

Editorial Reviews

"This book will leave readers in no doubt that there has never been a more breathless and exciting time to be an evolutionary biologist, and that microbes have rightfully taken center stage."—Edward Feil, The Quarterly Review of Biology"

"This volume is timely, interesting, and important. Dr. Sapp has gathered a group of authors that includies the best in the field of microbial evolution. ... Any scientist interested in the origin and evolution of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells will want to peruse this book."—Nicholas Gillham, J.B. Duke Professor of Biology Emeritus, Duke University

"This book has two great advantages. First, it sets out why the subject of bacterial evolution has become of central importance to considerations of the origins of living organisms and of a variety of their cell and molecular mechanisms. Second, it sets out the contrasting viewpoints on the significance of recent research with unique coherence. The 21st century will see the continuing emergence of radical new ideas on the evolution and interrelationships of living organisms. No other book sets out the currect situation and possible future developments so clearly and authoritatively."—Sir David Smith, Professor Emeritus at the University of Oxford, Fellow of the Royal Society of London

From the Publisher