Epigenetic Principles of Evolution

This is the first and only book, so far, to deal with the causal basis of evolution from an epigenetic view. By revealing the epigenetic "user" of the "genetic toolkit", this book demonstrates the primacy of epigenetic mechanisms and epigenetic information in generating evolutionary novelties.

The author convincingly supports his theory with a host of examples from the most varied fields of biology, by emphasizing changes in developmental pathways as the basic source of evolutionary change in metazoans.

• Original and thought provoking--a radically new theory that overcomes the present difficulties of the theory of evolution
• Is the first and only theory that uses epigenetic mechanisms and principles for explaining evolution of metazoans
• Takes an integrative approach and shows a wide range of learning

Evolutionary biologists, developmental biologists and ecologists

Dedication

Introduction: The Explanatory Conundrum and the New Perspective in Modern Biology

1. Control Systems and Determination of Phenotypic Traits in Metazoans

2. Neural Manipulation of Gene Expression

3. Epigenetic Control of Reproduction

4. Epigenetic Control of Early Development

5. Neural Control of Postphylotypic Development

6. The Epigenetic System of Inheritance—An Outline

7. Evolution and Stress Responses to Changes in Environment

8. Behavioral Adaptation to Changed Conditions of Living

9. Ontogeny

10. Intragenerational Developmental Plasticity

11. Transgenerational Developmental Plasticity—An Epitome of Evolutionary Change

12. Evolution of Metazoans and Their Control System

13. Origins of Evolutionary Novelty

14. Evolution by Loss

15. Evolution by Reverting to Ancestral Characters

16. Neural Crest–Determined Evolutionary Novelties

17. Evolutionary Convergences

18. Species and Allopatric Speciation

19. Epigenetics of Sympatric Speciation—Speciation as a Mechanism of Evolution