Saltational symbiosis.
Symbiosis has long been associated with saltational evolutionary change in contradistinction to gradual Darwinian evolution based on gene mutations and recombination between individuals of a species, as well as with super-organismal views of the individual in contrast to the classical one-genome: one organism conception. Though they have often been dismissed, and overshadowed by Darwinian theory, suggestions that symbiosis and lateral gene transfer are fundamental mechanisms of evolutionary innovation are borne out today by molecular phylogenetic research. It is time to treat these processes as central principles of evolution.
Sapp
Jan
J
Department of Biology, Faculty of Science and Engineering, York University, Toronto, Canada. jsapp@yorku.ca
D000818:Animals; D001105:Archaea / Q000502:physiology; D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena / Q000235:genetics; D001435:Bacteriophages / Q000502:physiology; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002736:Chloroplasts / Q000502:physiology; D005658:Fungi / Q000502:physiology; D022761:Gene Transfer, Horizontal; D006801:Humans; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000473:pathology; D015388:Organelles / Q000502:physiology; D010802:Phylogeny; D018521:Plant Physiological Phenomena / Q000235:genetics; D012641:Selection, Genetic / Q000502:physiology; D013559:Symbiosis / Q000502:physiology*; D018406:Virus Physiological Phenomena / Q000235:genetics