Reconstructing The Tree Of Life Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle version is available to download in english. Read online anytime anywhere directly from your device. Click on the download button below to get a free pdf file of Reconstructing The Tree Of Life book. This book definitely worth reading, it is an incredibly well-written.
To document the world's diversity of species and reconstruct the tree of life we need to undertake some simple but mountainous tasks. Most importantly, we need to tackle species rich groups. We need to collect, name, and classify them, and then position them on the tree of life. We need to do this systematically across all groups of organisms and b
The Great Tree of Life is a concise, approachable treatment that surveys the concept of the Tree of Life, including chapters on its historical introduction and cultural connection. The Tree of Life is a metaphor used to describe the relationships between organisms, both living and extinct. It has been widely recognized that the relationship between the roughly 10 million species on earth drives the ecological system. This work covers options on how to build the tree, demonstrating its utility in drug discovery, curing disease, crop improvement, conservation biology and ecology, along with tactics on how to respond to the challenges of climate change. This book is a key aid on the improvement of our understanding of the relationships between species, the increasing and essential awareness of biodiversity, and the power of employing modern biology to build the tree of life. Provides a single reference describing the properties, history and utility of The Tree of Life Introduces phylogenetics and its applications in an approachable manner Written by experts on the Tree of Life Includes an online companion site containing various original videos to enhance the reader’s understanding and experience
Darwin envisioned the history of evolution as a great Tree of Life, in which all the branches are connected by ancestry. Explore the modern version of this idea, which has been revolutionized by DNA sequencing. Investigate the concept of phylogenetics and the surprisingly close link between single-celled microorganisms, plants, and animals. Also probe the phenomenon of “jumping” genes.
In this New York Times bestseller and longlist nominee for the National Book Award, “our greatest living chronicler of the natural world” (The New York Times), David Quammen explains how recent discoveries in molecular biology affect our understanding of evolution and life’s history. In the mid-1970s, scientists began using DNA sequences to reexamine the history of all life. Perhaps the most startling discovery to come out of this new field—the study of life’s diversity and relatedness at the molecular level—is horizontal gene transfer (HGT), or the movement of genes across species lines. It turns out that HGT has been widespread and important; we now know that roughly eight percent of the human genome arrived sideways by viral infection—a type of HGT. In The Tangled Tree, “the grandest tale in biology….David Quammen presents the science—and the scientists involved—with patience, candor, and flair” (Nature). We learn about the major players, such as Carl Woese, the most important little-known biologist of the twentieth century; Lynn Margulis, the notorious maverick whose wild ideas about “mosaic” creatures proved to be true; and Tsutomu Wantanabe, who discovered that the scourge of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a direct result of horizontal gene transfer, bringing the deep study of genome histories to bear on a global crisis in public health. “David Quammen proves to be an immensely well-informed guide to a complex story” (The Wall Street Journal). In The Tangled Tree, he explains how molecular studies of evolution have brought startling recognitions about the tangled tree of life—including where we humans fit upon it. Thanks to new technologies, we now have the ability to alter even our genetic composition—through sideways insertions, as nature has long been doing. “The Tangled Tree is a source of wonder….Quammen has written a deep and daring intellectual adventure” (The Boston Globe).
This edited volume is provides an authoritative synthesis of knowledge about the history of life. All the major groups of organisms are treated, by the leading workers in their fields. With sections on: The Importance of Knowing the Tree of Life; The Origin and Radiation of Life on Earth; The Relationships of Green Plants; The Relationships of Fungi; and The Relationships of Animals. This book should prove indispensable for evolutionary biologists, taxonomists, ecologists interested in biodiversity, and as a baseline sourcebook for organismic biologists, botanists, and microbiologists. An essential reference in this fundamental area.
Ancestral sequence reconstruction is a technique of growing importance in molecular evolutionary biology and comparative genomics. As a powerful tool for testing evolutionary and ecological hypotheses, as well as uncovering the link between sequence and molecular phenotype, there are potential applications in a range of fields. Ancestral Sequence Reconstruction starts with a historical overview of the field, before discussing the potential applications in drug discovery and the pharmaceutical industry. This is followed by a section on computational methodology, which provides a detailed discussion of the available methods for reconstructing ancestral sequences (including their advantages, disadvantages, and potential pitfalls). Purely computational applications of the technique are then covered, including whole proteome reconstruction. Further chapters provide a detailed discussion on taking computationally reconstructed sequences and synthesizing them in the laboratory. The book concludes with a description of the scientific questions where experimental ancestral sequence reconstruction has been utilized to provide insights and inform future research. This research level text provides a first synthesis of the theories, methodologies and applications associated with ancestral sequence recognition, while simultaneously addressing many of the hot topics in the field. It will be of interest and use to both graduate students and researchers in the fields of molecular biology, molecular evolution, and evolutionary bioinformatics.
Through comparative analysis, the genomes of a number of species are providing a deeper understanding of the human genome. This is highly useful in drug research, especially in the treatment of otherwise intractable conditions. Compiling first-hand descriptions of the pioneering achievements of prominent researchers, this text focuses on revolutionary advances in DNA-sequencing technology, new approaches to the organization and analysis of large phylogenetic data sets, new perspectives on evolution, and the development of novel antimicrobial drugs. This seminal volume demonstrates both the means and the fruits of cooperation across a number of fields, and in doing so lays the groundwork for continued progress.
This book presents an overview of current views on the origin of life and its earliest evolution. Each chapter describes key processes, environments and transition on the long road from geochemistry and astrochemistry to biochemistry and finally to the ancestors of today ́s organisms. This book combines the bottom-up and the top-down approaches to life including the origin of key chemical and structural features of living cells and the nature of abiotic factors that shaped these features in primordial environments. The book provides an overview of the topic as well as its state of the art for graduate students and newcomers to the field. It also serves as a reference for researchers in origins of life on Earth and beyond.
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?
Cognitive Evolution provides an in-depth exploration of the natural history of cognition, from the beginning of life on Earth to present-day humans. Drawing together evolutionary, comparative, and neuroscience research, the book brings a unique cognitive perspective to evolutionary psychology. The second edition features the latest research and illustrations on emerging topics, making it a true update of the field. After introducing evolution, Boles adopts an information processing perspective – from inputs to outputs, with all the mental processes in between to provide a systematic overview of the evolution of cognition, including its sensory, motoric, perceptual, and cognitive components. The combination of evolutionary, comparative, and neuroscience perspectives provides an insight on topics like vision, handedness, tools and planning, spatial perception, pattern recognition, memory, language, and consciousness. Cognitive Evolution is a comprehensive, essential read for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of cognitive and evolutionary psychology. Researchers will find it a useful and insightful synthesis of the field, yet even the curious public will find in it much that is surprising and enlightening.