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Academic & Professional Books  Evolutionary Biology  Evolution

The Evolutionary Origins of Life and Death

By: Pierre M Durand(Author), Eugene V Koonin(Foreword By)
221 pages, 30 b/w photos and b/w illustrations, 3 tables
NHBS
By examining the deep roots of programmed cell death, this book looks at the evolutionary conundrum of why an individual would kill itself.
The Evolutionary Origins of Life and Death
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  • The Evolutionary Origins of Life and Death ISBN: 9780226747767 Paperback Dec 2020 In stock
    £27.99
    #250855
  • The Evolutionary Origins of Life and Death ISBN: 9780226747620 Hardback Mar 2021 Not in stock: Usually dispatched within 5 days
    £83.99
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About this book

The question of why an individual would actively kill itself has long been an evolutionary mystery. Pierre M. Durand's ambitious book answers this question through close inspection of life and death in the earliest cellular life. As Durand shows us, cell death is a fascinating lens through which to examine the interconnectedness, in evolutionary terms, of life and death. It is a truism to note that one does not exist without the other, but just how does this play out in evolutionary history?

These two processes have been studied from philosophical, theoretical, experimental, and genomic angles, but no one has yet integrated the information from these various disciplines. In The Evolutionary Origins of Life and Death, Durand synthesizes cellular studies of life and death looking at the origin of life and the evolutionary significance of programmed cellular death. The exciting and unexpected outcome of Durand's analysis is the realization that life and death exhibit features of coevolution. The evolution of more complex cellular life depended on the coadaptation between traits that promote life and those that promote death. In an ironic twist, it becomes clear that, in many circumstances, programmed cell death is essential for sustaining life.

Contents

Foreword (by Eugene V. Koonin)
Preface
List of abbreviations
An introduction to the scientific study of life and death

Part One: The origin of life
1 Philosophical considerations and the origin of life
2 The biotic world
3 The theory of life’s origins
4 Life at the very beginning I: the chemistry of the first biomolecules
5 Life at the very beginning II: the emergence of complex RNA molecules
6 The origin of life was an evolutionary transition in individuality
7 A synthesis for the origin of life

Part Two: The origin of death
8 Philosophical considerations and the origin of death
9 Observations of death
10 Mechanisms and measures of programmed cell death in the unicellular world
11 True PCD: when PCD is an adaptation
12 Ersatz PCD: the non-adaptive explanations for PCD
13 Programmed cell death and the levels of selection
14 A synthesis for the origin of programmed cell death

Part Three: Origins of life and death, and their coevolution
15 Group selection and the origins of life and death
16 Life and death coevolution, and the emergence of complexity
 
Postface
Additional notes
Reference list
Index

Customer Reviews (1)

  • Thought-provoking thesis in a surprisingly slim volume
    By Leon (NHBS Catalogue Editor) 9 Feb 2024 Written for Paperback


    In this short and thought-provoking book, evolutionary biologist Pierre M. Durand sketches how scientists are probing the origins of life and death in unicellular organisms. Two series of seven short chapters each examine the philosophical, theoretical, and empirical underpinnings of these two entwined research fields. Two synthesis chapters propose what he thinks are the most likely explanations of how life and death originated and, as the final two chapters argue, coevolved. Throughout, Durand carefully acknowledges other schools of thought, explains why researchers disagree and why he picks the sides that he picks, highlights where we need more theoretical and empirical work, and outlines the limits of our knowledge.

    The first part of this book is a welcome recap of the field of abiogenesis: the study of life’s origin from non-living matter. This section has three goals. 1) Set the stage with the philosophical and conceptual considerations of what life is (more on that below). 2) Discuss the theoretical ideas of how inanimate matter became animated. 3) Survey which of these ideas have been empirically investigated, as it turns out there is quite a disconnect between theory and experimental work. This culminates in an eight-step outline that argues that the evolution of life is an example of what Maynard Smith & Szathmáry call major evolutionary transitions. Specifically one in individuality, where groups of individuals combined to form a new kind of individual. Durand reminds the reader this is merely one possible version of events and there is likely more overlap between steps than his outline suggests.

    Durand reviews some fascinating theoretical concepts such as hypercycles, quasispecies, the chemoton, and of course the idea of an RNA world. With all due respect to the theorists who formulated these ideas, Durand throws out some intriguing ideas himself when discussing what life is. Indulge me if you will. Defining life is notoriously hard and its edges are fuzzy. "For philosophers of biology, the origin of life is captured more by the evolutionary process than a substance or a specific event" (p. 34). You may have heard of LUCA, the hypothetical Last Universal Common Ancestor, but an awful lot of evolution had to happen to get to that point. And much of that took the form of horizontal gene transfer, to the point that I imagine the root of LUCA breaking down into an intractable cloud. Durand credits foreword author Eugene V. Koonin with showing that "while there is a phylogenetic signal of life’s origin, it is not a singularity" (p. 34). Another idea Durand favours is that a reductionist approach will only get you so far. He would rather ask if there are additional laws that apply to biotic but not abiotic systems. This is not to take recourse to supernatural explanations: "Life is a natural property of matter. It is not exempt from the laws of physics and chemistry, but to fully appreciate it one needs additional tenets" (p. 21). In some ways, it is easier to describe what life does than what life is and he invokes the idea of functionalism in biology: what makes something alive is the way it functions. Reproduction, metabolism, behaviour; these are phenomena not shown by lifeless matter.

    So, what about death? That is the second part of this book. Following the same neatly structured approach as before, Durand has several aims here too. 1) Set the stage with the philosophical and conceptual considerations of what death is. 2) Discuss the evidence for PCD and why it is contentious. 3) Explain how this could have evolved. This culminates in an eight-step outline of how PCD might have evolved in the unicellular world.

    Rather than incidental death due to injury, predation, or starvation, we are here discussing non-incidental death. The reason this matter is so contentious is that researchers have taken concepts and methods from research on multicellular organisms and applied these to unicellular organisms. It is not always clear that the outcomes mean the same thing, with a risk of false positives (detecting non-existent death) and false negatives (failing to detect death). Durand provides a useful discussion here of best practices and gold standards. Though expensive and time-consuming, microscopy has provided the best evidence so far that cells are not simply falling apart but breaking themselves down. Understanding PCD is complicated by the fact that there are usually multiple possible pathways leading to death and that these are multipurpose; they are also observed in e.g. dormancy, senescence, or spore formation.

    Second, how did PCD evolve in unicellular organisms? You would think that natural selection would quickly eliminate it. Understanding this means accepting that natural selection can act on multiple levels, including kin selection and, more controversially, group selection. Durand takes his time here, in two chapters making a case in favour of the idea that PCD is an adaptation, and presenting the counterargument that it is not.

    A short concluding third part brings more arguments to bear on the notion of group selection in both the origin of life (where it seems obvious, it required collaborative chemistry) and the origin of death (where PCD can benefit both relatives and non-relatives). And in case you needed one more thought-provoking idea, the grand synthesis Durand works towards is that life and death have coevolved and depend on each other. He discusses several examples of which I think the evolution of eukaryote cells is particularly apt. We know this involved endosymbiosis, with radically different prokaryotes with their own genomes ending up inside another cell and forming a new entity (a nice example of the abovementioned evolutionary transition in individuality). This had the seeds of conflict between different genomes baked into it from the get-go. Durand argues that PCD played the role of conflict mediator, eliminating cells where the process went awry. "The stable evolution of the eukaryote cell depended on this coevolution of life and death" (p. 158).

    Given the amount of ground it covers, The Evolutionary Origins of Life and Death is a surprisingly slim volume (177 pages for its narrative and notes). Durand has an admirably compact and economical style of writing, his 16 chapters frequently brief and to the point, yet accessibly and clearly presented, with additional subheadings helping to keep you on track. A well-stocked bibliography (a personal sticking point for him) will help the reader locate relevant older literature. The material here is thought-provoking, to some perhaps even controversial given its invocation of group selection, but Durand is never less than informative, convincing, and humble enough to highlight the limits of his arguments.
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Biography

Pierre M. Durand first real exposure to biology was as an undergraduate student. Taking a shortcut to a physics lecture via the Zoology Department led to a serendipitous encounter with an exhibit on adaptive radiation in cichlids. A fascination with evolutionary biology began. He is an alumnus of King's College, London, and the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, where he is currently reader in evolutionary biology. This is his first book.

By: Pierre M Durand(Author), Eugene V Koonin(Foreword By)
221 pages, 30 b/w photos and b/w illustrations, 3 tables
NHBS
By examining the deep roots of programmed cell death, this book looks at the evolutionary conundrum of why an individual would kill itself.
Media reviews

“An eye opener for many readers, biologists, and others interested in visiting the frontiers of today’s conceptual thinking on evolution. This book, compact and simple but densely packed with information and ideas, presents the new edifice of evolutionary biology, a vibrant, progressing field that goes far beyond the confines of neo-Darwinism.”
– Eugene V. Koonin, National Center for Biotechnology Information, from the foreword

"There is no question that Durand is deeply learned. The way that he lays out his argument linking life and death is certainly innovative and I am sure will attract attention. Insightful and stimulating, The Evolutionary Origins of Life and Death will forward discussion on important issues."
– Michael Ruse, Florida State University

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