All Topics  
Evolutionary physiology

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Evolutionary physiology
 
 
  Topics Evolutionary physiology Topic Home

Evolutionary physiology is the study of physiological evolution, which is to say, the manner in which the functional characteristics of individuals in a population of organisms have responded to selection across multiple generations during the history of the population. It is a subdiscipline
List of academic disciplines

An academia discipline, or field of study, is a branch of knowledge which is teaching and researched at the college or university level. Disciplines are defined and recognized by the academic journals in which research is published, and the learned society and academic departments or faculties to which their practitioners belong....
 of both physiology
Physiology

Physiology is the study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of living organisms. Physiology has traditionally been divided between plant physiology and animal and all living things physiology but the principles of physiology are universal, no matter what particular organism is being studied....
 and evolutionary biology
Evolutionary biology

Evolutionary biology is a sub-field of biology concerned with the origin of species from a common descent and descent of species, as well as their evolution, multiplication and diversity over time....
. Practitioners in this field come from a variety of backgrounds, including physiology
Physiology

Physiology is the study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of living organisms. Physiology has traditionally been divided between plant physiology and animal and all living things physiology but the principles of physiology are universal, no matter what particular organism is being studied....
, evolutionary biology, ecology
Ecology

Ecology is the science study of the distribution and Abundance of life and the interactions between organisms and their nature environment ....
 and genetics
Genetics

Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of heredity and Genetic variation in living organisms. The fact that living things inherit traits from their parents has been used since prehistoric times to improve crop plants and animals through selective breeding....
.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Evolutionary physiology'
Start a new discussion about 'Evolutionary physiology'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Evolutionary physiology is the study of physiological evolution, which is to say, the manner in which the functional characteristics of individuals in a population of organisms have responded to selection across multiple generations during the history of the population. It is a subdiscipline
List of academic disciplines

An academia discipline, or field of study, is a branch of knowledge which is teaching and researched at the college or university level. Disciplines are defined and recognized by the academic journals in which research is published, and the learned society and academic departments or faculties to which their practitioners belong....
 of both physiology
Physiology

Physiology is the study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of living organisms. Physiology has traditionally been divided between plant physiology and animal and all living things physiology but the principles of physiology are universal, no matter what particular organism is being studied....
 and evolutionary biology
Evolutionary biology

Evolutionary biology is a sub-field of biology concerned with the origin of species from a common descent and descent of species, as well as their evolution, multiplication and diversity over time....
. Practitioners in this field come from a variety of backgrounds, including physiology
Physiology

Physiology is the study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of living organisms. Physiology has traditionally been divided between plant physiology and animal and all living things physiology but the principles of physiology are universal, no matter what particular organism is being studied....
, evolutionary biology, ecology
Ecology

Ecology is the science study of the distribution and Abundance of life and the interactions between organisms and their nature environment ....
 and genetics
Genetics

Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of heredity and Genetic variation in living organisms. The fact that living things inherit traits from their parents has been used since prehistoric times to improve crop plants and animals through selective breeding....
. Accordingly, the range of phenotypes studied by evolutionary physiologists is broad, including but not limited to life history
Life history theory

Life history theory is an analytical framework widely used in animal and human biology, psychology, and evolutionary anthropology which postulates that many of the physiology traits and behaviors of individuals may be best understood in terms of the key maturational and reproductive characteristics that define the life course....
, behavior, whole-organism performance, functional morphology, biomechanics
Biomechanics

Biomechanics is the application of mechanical principles to living organisms. This includes bioengineering, the research and analysis of the mechanics of living organisms and the application of engineering principles to and from biological systems....
, anatomy
Anatomy

Anatomy is a branch of biology that is the consideration of the body plan. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy and plant anatomy ....
, classical physiology, endocrinology
Endocrinology

Endocrinology is a branch of medicine dealing with disorder of the endocrine system and its specific secretions called hormones....
, biochemistry
Biochemistry

Biochemistry is the study of the chemistry processes in living organisms. It deals with the structure and function of cellular components such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids and other biomolecules....
, and molecular evolution
Molecular evolution

Molecular evolution is the process of evolution at the scale of DNA, RNA, and proteins. Molecular evolution emerged as a scientific field in the 1960s as researchers from molecular biology, evolutionary biology and population genetics sought to understand recent discoveries on the structure and function of nucleic acids and protein....
. It is closely related to comparative physiology
Comparative physiology

Comparative physiology is a List of academic disciplines of physiology that studies and exploits the diversity of functional characteristics of various kinds of organisms....
 and environmental physiology, and its findings are a major concern of evolutionary medicine
Evolutionary medicine

Evolutionary medicine or Darwinian medicine is the application of modern evolution to understanding health and disease. It provides a complementary scientific approach to the present Mechanism_ that dominate medical science, and particularly modern medical education....
.

History

As the name implies, evolutionary physiology is the product of what was at one time two distinct scientific disciplines. According to Garland and Carter, evolutionary physiology arose in the late 1970s, following "heated" debates concerning the metabolic and thermoregulatory status of dinosaur
Dinosaur

Dinosaurs were the dominant vertebrate animals of Landform ecosystems for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic Period until the end of the Cretaceous Period , when most of them became extinct in the Cretaceous?Tertiary extinction event....
s (see physiology of dinosaurs) and mammal-like reptiles. This period was followed by attempts in the early 1980s to integrate quantitative genetics
Quantitative genetics

Quantitative genetics is the study of continuous traits and its underlying mechanisms. It is effectively an extension of simple Mendelian inheritance in that the combined effect of the many underlying genes results in a Continuous probability distribution of phenotypic values....
 into evolutionary biology
Evolutionary biology

Evolutionary biology is a sub-field of biology concerned with the origin of species from a common descent and descent of species, as well as their evolution, multiplication and diversity over time....
, which had spill-over effects on other fields, such as behavioral ecology
Behavioral ecology

Behavioral ecology is the study of the ecology and evolution basis for animal behavior, and the roles of behavior in enabling an animal to adapt to its environment ....
 and ecophysiology
Ecophysiology

Ecophysiology or environmental physiology is a biology List of academic disciplines which studies the adaptation of organism's physiology to environmental conditions....
. In the mid- to late-1980s, phylogenetic comparative methods
Phylogenetic comparative methods

Phylogenetic comparative methods use information on the evolutionary relationships of organisms to compare species #Reference-Harvey-and-Pagel-1991 ....
 started to became popular in many fields, including physiological ecology and comparative physiology
Comparative physiology

Comparative physiology is a List of academic disciplines of physiology that studies and exploits the diversity of functional characteristics of various kinds of organisms....
. An 1987 volume titled "New Directions in Ecological Physiology" had little ecology but a considerable emphasis on evolutionary topics. It generated vigorous debate, and within a few years the National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation

The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering....
 had developed a panel titled . Shortly thereafter, selection experiments and experimental evolution
Experimental evolution

In evolutionary biology, the field of experimental evolution is concerned with testing hypotheses and evolution by use of controlled experiments....
 became increasingly common in evolutionary physiology. Most recently, "macrophysiology" has emerged as a subdiscipline, in which practitioners attempt to identify large-scale patterns in physiological traits (e.g., patterns of covariation with latitude
Latitude

Latitude, usually denoted symbolically by the Greek letter phi gives the location of a place on Earth north or south of the equator. Lines of Latitude are the horizontal lines shown running east-to-west on maps ....
) and their ecological implications.

Emergent Properties of Evolutionary Physiology

As a hybrid scientific discipline, evolutionary physiology provides some unique perspectives. For example, an understanding of physiological mechanisms can help in determining whether a particular pattern of phenotypic variation or covariation (such as an allometric relationship) represents what could possibly exist or just what selection has allowed. Similarly, a thorough knowledge of physiological mechanisms can greatly enhance understanding of possible reasons for evolutionary correlations and constraints than is possible for many of the traits typically studied by evolutionary biologists (such as morphology
Morphology (biology)

The term morphology in biology refers to form, structure and configuration of an organism. This includes aspects of the outward appearance as well as the form and structure of the internal parts like bones and organs....
).

Areas of Research

Important areas of current research include:
  • Organismal performance as a central phenotype
    Phenotype

    A phenotype is any observable characteristic or trait_ of an organism: such as its morphology , development, biochemical or physiological properties, or behavior....
     (e.g., measures of speed or stamina in animal locomotion
    Animal locomotion

    In biomechanics, animal locomotion is the study of how animals motion . Most animals move in order to find food, a mate, escape predators, find suitable microhabitats, etc....
    )
  • Role of behavior
    Behavior

    Behavior or behaviour refers to the action s or reactions of an object or organism, usually in Relational theory to the environment. Behavior can be conscious or Unconscious mind, overt or covert, and voluntary or involuntary....
     in physiological evolution
  • Physiological and endocrinological basis of variation in life history
    Life history

    The term life history has been given many meanings in several scientific fields. It can refer to a variety of methods and techniques that are used for conducting qualitative research interviews, especially in the fields of sociology and anthropology....
     traits (e.g., clutch size)
  • Functional significance of molecular evolution
    Molecular evolution

    Molecular evolution is the process of evolution at the scale of DNA, RNA, and proteins. Molecular evolution emerged as a scientific field in the 1960s as researchers from molecular biology, evolutionary biology and population genetics sought to understand recent discoveries on the structure and function of nucleic acids and protein....
  • Extent to which species differences are adaptive
  • Physiological underpinnings of limits to geographic ranges
  • Role of sexual selection
    Sexual selection

    Sexual selection is the theory proposed by Charles Darwin that states that certain evolutionary traits can be explained by intraspecific competition....
     in shaping physiological evolution
  • Magnitude of "phylogenetic signal" in physiological traits
  • Role of pathogens and parasites in physiological evolution and immunity
    Immunity

    Immunity may refer to:* Immunity , resistance of an organism to infection, disease, or other unwanted biological invasion* Immunity , exclusion from legal obligations, such as liabilities and punishments...
  • Application of optimality modeling to elucidate the degree of adaptation
  • Role of phenotypic plasticity
    Phenotypic plasticity

    The ability of an organism with a given genotype to change its phenotype in response to changes in the environment is called phenotypic plasticity....
     in accounting for species differences
  • Mechanistic basis of trade-off
    Trade-off

    A trade-off is a situation that involves losing one quality or aspect of something in return for gaining another quality or aspect. It implies a decision to be made with full comprehension of both the upside and downside of a particular choice....
    s and constraints on evolution (e.g., putative Carrier's constraint
    Carrier's constraint

    Carrier's constraint is the observation that air-breathing vertebrates which have two lungs and flex their bodies sideways during locomotion find it very difficult to move and breathe at the same time, because:...
     on running and breathing)
  • Origin of allometric scaling relations or allometric laws (and the so-called metabolic theory of ecology
    Metabolic theory of ecology

    The metabolic theory of ecology is a theory that claims to explain the relationships between body mass and metabolic rate in organisms from unicellular microbes to plants and animals over 27 orders of magnitude, based on the physics and geometry of supply networks....
    )
  • Individual variation (see also Individual differences psychology
    Individual differences psychology

    The science of psychology studies people at three levels of focus captured by the well known quote: ?Every man is in certain respects like all other men, like some other men, like no other man" ....
    )
  • Functional significance of biochemical polymorphisms
    Polymorphism (biology)

    Polymorphism in biology occurs when two or more clearly different phenotypes exist in the same population of a species ? in other words, the occurrence of more than one form or morph....
  • Analysis of physiological variation via quantitative genetics
    Quantitative genetics

    Quantitative genetics is the study of continuous traits and its underlying mechanisms. It is effectively an extension of simple Mendelian inheritance in that the combined effect of the many underlying genes results in a Continuous probability distribution of phenotypic values....
  • Paleophysiology and the evolution of endothermy
  • Human
    Human

    A human being, also human or man, is a member of a species of bipedalism primates in the family Hominidae . Mitochondrial DNA evidence indicates that modern humans originated in east Africa about 200,000 years ago....
     adaptational physiology
    Physiology

    Physiology is the study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of living organisms. Physiology has traditionally been divided between plant physiology and animal and all living things physiology but the principles of physiology are universal, no matter what particular organism is being studied....
  • Darwinian medicine


Techniques


  • Artificial selection
    Artificial selection

    Artificial selection describes intentional breeding for certain traits, or combination of traits. It was defined by Charles Darwin in contrast to natural selection, in which the differential reproduction of organisms with certain traits is attributed to improved survival or reproductive ability ....
     and experimental evolution
    Experimental evolution

    In evolutionary biology, the field of experimental evolution is concerned with testing hypotheses and evolution by use of controlled experiments....
     


  • Genetic analyses
    Genetics

    Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of heredity and Genetic variation in living organisms. The fact that living things inherit traits from their parents has been used since prehistoric times to improve crop plants and animals through selective breeding....
     and manipulations
    Genetic engineering

    Engineering There are a number of ways through which genetic engineering is accomplished. Essentially, the process has five main steps# Isolation of the genes of interest...


  • Measurement of selection in the wild


  • Phenotypic plasticity
    Phenotypic plasticity

    The ability of an organism with a given genotype to change its phenotype in response to changes in the environment is called phenotypic plasticity....
     and manipulation


  • Phylogenetically based comparisons
    Phylogenetic comparative methods

    Phylogenetic comparative methods use information on the evolutionary relationships of organisms to compare species #Reference-Harvey-and-Pagel-1991 ....


Funding and Societies

In the United States, research in evolutionary physiology is funded mainly by the National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation

The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering....
. A number of scientific societies feature sections that encompass evolutionary physiology, including:
  • Society for Experimental Biology
    Society for Experimental Biology

    The Society for Experimental Biology is a learned society which was established in 1923 at Birkbeck, University of London in London to ?promote the art and science of experimental biology in all its branches?....


Some journals that frequently publish articles in evolutionary physiology

  • American Naturalist
    American Naturalist

    The American Naturalist is a monthly scientific journal, founded in 1867 and associated with the American Society of Naturalists. It is published by the University of Chicago Journals....
  • Integrative and Comparative Biology
    Integrative and Comparative Biology

    Integrative and Comparative Biology is the scientific journal for the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology . Prior to volume 42 , the journal was known as American Zoologist ....


Further reading

  • Angilletta, M. J., Jr., P. H. Niewiarowski, and C. A. Navas. 2002. The evolution of thermal physiology in ectotherms. Journal of Thermal Biology 27:249-268.
  • Berenbrink, M., P. Koldkjær, O. Kepp, and A. R. Cossins. 2005. Evolution of oxygen secretion in fishes and the emergence of a complex physiological system. Science 307:1752-1757.
  • Bradley, T. J., and W. Zamer. 1999. Introduction to the Symposium: What is evolutionary physiology? American Zoologist 39:321-322.
  • Burggren, W. W., and W. E. Bemis. 1990. Studying physiological evolution: paradigms and pitfalls. Pages 191-238 in M. H. Nitecki, ed. Evolutionary innovations. Univ. Chicago Press, Chicago.
  • Calow, P., ed. 1987. Evolutionary physiological ecology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 239 pp.
  • Dean, A. M., and J. W. Thornton. 2007. Mechanistic approaches to the study of evolution: the functional synthesis. Nature Reviews Genetics 8:675-688.
  • Diamond, J. M. 1993. Evolutionary physiology. Pages 89-111 in C. A. R. Boyd and D. Noble, eds. The logic of life: the challenge of integrative physiology. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
  • Dudley, R. 2000. The biomechanics of insect flight: form, function, evolution. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  • Dudley, R. 2000. The evolutionary physiology of animal flight: paleobiological and present perspectives. Annual Review of Physiology 62:135-155.
  • Dudley, R., and C. Gans. 1991. A critique of symmorphosis and optimality models in physiology. Physiological Zoology 64:627-637.
  • Feder, M. E., A. F. Bennett, and R. B. Huey. 2000. Evolutionary physiology. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 31:315-341.
  • Gans, C. 1974. Biomechanics: an approach to vertebrate biology. J. B. Lippincott, Philadelphia. 261 pp.
  • Garland, T., Jr., and S. C. Adolph. 1994. Why not to do two-species comparative studies: limitations on inferring adaptation. Physiological Zoology 67:797-828.
  • Garland, T., Jr., and P. A. Carter. 1994. Evolutionary physiology. Annual Review of Physiology 56:579-621.
  • Gilmour, K. M., R. W. Wilson, and K. A. Sloman. 2005. The integration of behaviour into comparative physiology. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 78:669-678.
  • Hochachka, P. W., and G. N. Somero. 2002. Biochemical adaptation — mechanism and process in physiological evolution. Oxford University Press. 478 pp.
  • Irschick, D. J., A. Herrel, B. Vanhooydonck, and R. Van Damme. 2007. A functional approach to sexual selection. Functional Ecology 21:621-626.
  • Lailvaux, S. P., and D. J. Irschick. 2006. A functional perspective on sexual selection: insights and future prospects. Animal Behaviour 72:263-273.
  • Mangum, C. P., and P. W. Hochachka. 1998. New directions in comparative physiology and biochemistry: mechanisms, adaptations, and evolution. Physiological Zoology 71:471-484.
  • McKenzie, J. A., and P. Batterham. 1994. The genetic, molecular and phenotypic consequences of selection for insecticide resistance. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 9:166-169.
  • Mottishaw, P. D., S. J. Thornton, and P. W. Hochachka. 1999. The diving response mechanism and its surprising evolutionary path in seals and sealions. American Zoologist 39:434-450.
  • Natochin, Y. V., and T. V. Chernigovskaya. 1997. Evolutionary physiology: History, principles. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology A 118:63-79.
  • Nunn, C. L., and S. M Altizer. 2006. Infectious diseases in primates: behavior, ecology and evolution. Oxford University Press (Series in Ecology and Evolution).
  • Speakman, J.R. 2000. The cost of living: Field metabolic rates of small mammals. Advances in Ecological Research 30: 177-297
  • Speakman, J.R. Krol, E. and Johnston, M.S. 2004. The functional significance of individual variations in BMR. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 77: 900-915
  • Speakman, J.R. 2005. Body size, energy metabolism and lifespan. Journal of Experimental biology 208: 1717-30
  • Speakman, J.R. 2008. The physiological cost of reproduction in small mammals. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 363: 375-398
  • Spicer, J. I., and K. J. Gaston. 1999. Physiological diversity and its ecological implications. Blackwell Science, Oxford, U.K. x + 241 pp.
  • Swallow, J. G., and T. Garland, Jr. 2005. Selection experiments as a tool in evolutionary and comparative physiology: insights into complex traits - An introduction to the symposium. Integrative and Comparative Biology 45:387-390.
  • Vogel, S. 2003. Comparative biomechanics: life's physical world. Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford. xii + 580 pp.
  • Zera, A. J., and L. G. Harshman. 2001. The physiology of life history trade-offs. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 32:95-127.


See also

  • Allometry
    Allometry

    Allometry is the study of the relationship between size and shape,, first outlined by Otto Snell in 1892 and Julian Huxley in 1932. Allometry is a well-known study, particularly in statistical shape analysis for its theoretical developments, as well as in biology for practical applications to the differential growth rates of the parts of a li...
  • Allometric law
    Allometric law

    An allometric law describes the relationship between two attributes of living organisms, and is usually expressed as a power-law:where is the scaling exponent of the law....
  • Comparative physiology
    Comparative physiology

    Comparative physiology is a List of academic disciplines of physiology that studies and exploits the diversity of functional characteristics of various kinds of organisms....
  • Darwinian medicine
  • Ecophysiology
    Ecophysiology

    Ecophysiology or environmental physiology is a biology List of academic disciplines which studies the adaptation of organism's physiology to environmental conditions....
  • Evolutionary psychology
    Evolutionary psychology

    Evolutionary psychology attempts to explain Mind and psychology Trait theorys?such as memory, perception, or language?as adaptations, that is, as the functional products of natural selection or sexual selection....
  • Experimental evolution
    Experimental evolution

    In evolutionary biology, the field of experimental evolution is concerned with testing hypotheses and evolution by use of controlled experiments....
  • Human physiology
    Human physiology

    Human physiology is the science of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of humans in good health, their organs, and the cells of which they are composed....
  • I. M. Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry
    I. M. Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry

    The I. M. Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry is a facility in Saint Petersburg, Russia, dedicated to research in the fields of biochemistry and evolutionary physiology....
  • Kleiber's law
    Kleiber's law

    Kleiber's law, named after Max Kleiber's biological work in the early 1930s, is the observation that, for the vast majority of animals, an animal's basal metabolic rate scales to the 3/4 power of the animal's mass....
  • Krogh Principle
    Krogh Principle

    Krogh's principle states that "for such a large number of problems there will be some animal of choice, or a few such animals, on which it can be most conveniently studied." This concept is central to those disciplines of biology that rely on the comparative method, such as neuroethology, comparative physiology, and more recently functional g...
  • Life history theory
    Life history theory

    Life history theory is an analytical framework widely used in animal and human biology, psychology, and evolutionary anthropology which postulates that many of the physiology traits and behaviors of individuals may be best understood in terms of the key maturational and reproductive characteristics that define the life course....
  • Metabolic theory of ecology
    Metabolic theory of ecology

    The metabolic theory of ecology is a theory that claims to explain the relationships between body mass and metabolic rate in organisms from unicellular microbes to plants and animals over 27 orders of magnitude, based on the physics and geometry of supply networks....
  • Peter Hochachka
    Peter Hochachka

    Peter William Hochachka Doctorate Royal Society of Canada Order of Canada was a Canada professor and zoology.Born in Bordenave, Alberta, Alberta, the son of the very Rev....
  • Phenotypic plasticity
    Phenotypic plasticity

    The ability of an organism with a given genotype to change its phenotype in response to changes in the environment is called phenotypic plasticity....
  • Phylogenetic comparative methods
    Phylogenetic comparative methods

    Phylogenetic comparative methods use information on the evolutionary relationships of organisms to compare species #Reference-Harvey-and-Pagel-1991 ....
  • Physiology
    Physiology

    Physiology is the study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of living organisms. Physiology has traditionally been divided between plant physiology and animal and all living things physiology but the principles of physiology are universal, no matter what particular organism is being studied....
  • Raymond B. Huey
    Raymond B. Huey

    Raymond B. Huey is a biologist specializing in evolutionary physiology. He has taught at the University of Washington, and he earned his Ph.D. in biology at Harvard University under E....
  • Theodore Garland, Jr.
    Theodore Garland, Jr.

    Theodore Garland, Jr. is a biologist specializing in evolutionary physiology. He was on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for 14 years, served at the National Science Foundation for one year, and is currently at the University of California, Riverside....
  • Thrifty phenotype
    Thrifty phenotype

    It has been suggested that in poor nutritional conditions, a pregnant female can modify the development of her unborn child such that it will be prepared for survival in an environment in which resources are likely to be short, resulting in a thrifty phenotype ....


External links

  • [https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/carollee/web/Lee/pubs.html Carol Eunmi Lee reprints]