Evolutionary adaptation

Robert Richards This is just a simple question about - are there behaviours, not drive-by shootings in Los Angeles, but simple behaviours that human beings exhibit, that seem to be most perspicuously analysed by giving an evolutionary adaptable account And this won t be the account. And not only that - any evolutionary account, I think we all agree about this, is going to take into perspective the environment, because evolution, we presume, does count on certain constant environments in order to exhibit the kinds of effects that it can select. 

The temperature optimum for this proteinase may also be a result of evolutionary adaptation to the hot temperatures... 

Besides the two most well-known cases, the local bifurcations of the saddle-node and Hopf type, biochemical systems may show a variety of transitions between qualitatively different dynamic behavior [13, 17, 293, 294, 297 301]. Transitions between different regimes, induced by variation of kinetic parameters, are usually depicted in a bifurcation diagram. Within the chemical literature, a substantial number of articles seek to identify the possible bifurcation of a chemical system. Two prominent frameworks are Chemical Reaction Network Theory (CRNT), developed mainly by M. Feinberg [79, 80], and Stoichiometric Network Analysis (SNA), developed by B. L. Clarke [81 83]. An analysis of the (local) bifurcations of metabolic networks, as determinants of the dynamic behavior of metabolic states, constitutes the main topic of Section VIII. In addition to the scenarios discussed above, more complicated quasiperiodic or chaotic dynamics is sometimes reported for models of metabolic pathways [302 304]. However, apart from few special cases, the possible relevance of such complicated dynamics is, at best, unclear. Quite on the contrary, at least for central metabolism, we observe a striking absence of complicated dynamic phenomena. To what extent this might be an inherent feature of (bio)chemical systems, or brought about by evolutionary adaption, will be briefly discussed in Section IX. 

The reason for the correlation between the localization and the amino acid composition was sought by Andrade et al. (1998). They examined the amino acid composition of proteins with known localization and three-dimensional structure in three ways total composition, surface composition, and interior composition. The principal component analysis showed the best correlation between the surface composition and the localization. Therefore, they concluded that the correlation is the result of evolutionary adaptation of proteins to the surrounding environment. 

It is intriguing that Mo is an important element in biology despite its scarcity at the Earth s surface—indeed, no element of similar scarcity is so biochemically ubiquitous. The reason for this paradoxical combination is unknown. Possible explanations include the unique chemical character of this element, evolutionary adaptation to the abrmdance of Mo in oxygenated oceans relative to other transition metals, a legacy of prebiotic chemical evolution in Mo-rich environments (e.g., in association with sulfide minerals), or some combination of these factors. Regardless, this paradox has inspired creative hypotheses about the importance of Mo in evolution (Crick and Orgel 1973 Anbar and Knoll 2002). 

For thousands of years, people have used some of these compounds as fiavors, dyes, fragrances, insecticides, hallucinogens, nutritional supplements, animal or human poisons, and therapeutic or pharmaceutical agents. While secondary compounds are an evolutionary adaptation in plants, they serve multiple functions for mankind. 

Section 8.6.2, the Permian period ended with the largest mass extinction event that has yet occurred on planet Earth. As the ocean began a sustained recovery at the beginning of the Mesozoic era, opportunities likely abounded for the survivors to take over empty ecological niches through evolutionary adaptation. Prior to the advent of planktonic... 

Plant furanocoumarins occur widely in nature and provide formidable obstacles to grazing by herbivorous animals. Some insect species have nevertheless adapted to circumvent this powerful host-plant-resistance mechanism. It has been proposed that the leaf-rolling habit of some insect species may be an evolutionary adaptation to avoid light and thus avoid the toxic effects of furanocoumarins (21). Also, evidence has recently been obtained that the capacity of at least one leaf-mining Insect species to detoxify furanocoumarins allows the utilization of furanocoumarln-contalnlng plants as hosts (29). 

The combined activity of the rubisco oxygenase and the glycolate salvage pathway consumes 02 and produces C02—hence the name photorespiration. This pathway is perhaps better called the oxidative photosynthetic carbon cycle or C2 cycle, names that do not invite comparison with respiration in mitochondria. Unlike mitochondrial respiration, photorespiration does not conserve energy and may actually inhibit net biomass formation as much as 50%. This inefficiency has led to evolutionary adaptations in the carbon-assimilation processes, particularly in plants that have evolved in warm climates. 

Holliday R. Food, reproduction and longevity Is the extended life span of calorie-restricted animals an evolutionary adaptation Bioessays 1989 10 125-127. 

Cossins, A.R. and Prosser, C.L. (1978). Evolutionary adaptation of membranes to temperature. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 75,2040-2043. 

PAs are found widely in the families Asteraceae, Boraginaceae, Fabaceae, and Apocynaceae. About 360 diverse structures have been characterized,23 and these widespread alkaloids are produced by at least 3% of all flowering plants. It is remarkable that one group of animals-the insects-have broken through the formidable alkaloidal defenses represented by the highly toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids. This evolutionary adaptation has provided a large resource for these insects that is not available to PA-intolerant species, which constitute most of the herbivores. 

Bennett, A.F., and R.E. Lenski (1993). Evolutionary adaptation to temperature. II. Thermal niches of... 

Gracey, A.Y., J. Logue, P.E. Tiku, and A.R. Cossins (1996). Adaptation of biological membranes to temperature biophysical perspectives and molecular mechanisms. Soc. Exp. Biol. Sem. Ser., Animals and Temperature Phenotypic and Evolutionary Adaptation, 59 1-21, ed. I. A. Johnston and A.F. Bennett. Cambridge Cambridge University Press. 

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