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 evolutionIs the first and only theory that uses epigenetic mechanisms and principles for explaining evolution of metazoansTakes an integrative approach and shows a wide range of learning

Introduction

Part 1: Epigenetic Basis of Metazoan Heredity

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 Heredity – An Outline

Part 2: Neural-Developmental Premises of Evolutionary Adaptation

7. Evolution and Stress Responses to Changes in Environment
8. Behavioral Adaptation to Changed Conditions of Living
9. Ontology: The Workshop of Evolutionary Change
10. Intragenerational Developmental Plasticity

Part 3: Epigenetics of Circumevolutionary Phenomena and the Mechansim of the Evolutionary Change

11. Transgenerational Developmental Plasticity – An Epitome of Evolutionary Change
12. Evolution of Metazoans and Their Control System

Part 4: Epigenetics of Metazoan Evolution

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: The Trend Toward Sameness in Metazoan Evolution
18. Species and Allopatric Speciaition
19. Epigentics of Sympatric Speciation – Speciation as a Mechanism of Evolution