Digital Creativity, Life Sciences, and My Life

Huck Institutes Distinguished Lecture Series

Bongsoo Park, Ph.D program in Integrative Biosciences


   The speaker of the distinguished lecture series was Dr. David Sloan Wilson. He was born in Norwalk, Connecticut in 1949, and earned his Ph.D at Michigan State University in 1975. He is SUNY distinguished professor in department of Biology and Anthropology at Binghamton University. He mainly focuses on evolutionary theory and its application for disciplines in humanity. He is the pioneer of the multilevel selection theory that can be widely used to explain origin of life and the nature of religion(David Sloan Wilson 2007). After introducing a traditional definition of multilevel selection, Dr. Wilson continued his talk on the human cultural evolution and newly suggested group selections. He published many academic papers, many blog posts, and books for general education of evolution.

   Dr. Wilson opened the lecture with the story about two-fold cost of sex proceeded by Dr. Hanna Kokko at European Society for Evolutionary Biology(ESEB). Amazon molly, Poecilia Formosa, reproduces asexually, however, they needs male Poecila latipinna because of trigger development of their eggs. The new born fishes ecologically outcompete with their own host, so they will extinct within 10-20 generations(Katja U. Heubel 2008).  The question he pointed out in the lecture was “why don’t host males reject amazons?” To answer this question, selection on mating chance needs to be considered in the population level with group dynamics (Dr. Wilson’s lecture). He also spoke about the controversy of group selection. The group selection controversy includes separate issues beginning with original problem to partial solution and other issues. Basically, multilevel selection is the fundamental theory explaining the evolution-variation, heritability, and fitness differences can be found in all levels of the biological hierarchy(Sober 1998).

   The original problem of group selection theory consists of two main ideas. First, individual level adaptations are locally advantageous. Second, social adaptations tend to be locally disadvantageous(Dr. Wilson’s lecture). The original ideas need to be revisited and updated due to the underlying simplicity, and Dr. Williams at Princeton University gave critiques on that. Dr. Williams affirmed the logic of original problem and its partial solution. Furthermore, he added an empirical claim that between-group selection is weak compared to within-group selection. Dr. Wilson, however, claimed that the third an empirical claim is wrong.  Between-group selection is huge impact on the society of lions as he provides an example.

   Dr. Wilson claimed that human is highly group-selected species and cultural evolution happened and passed over generation to generation. The culture is definitely higher-level selection, and it is significant and dominating force of change or evolution in the society. All evolutionary theories of social behavior assume the existence of multiple groups because they all have the initial problem and partial solution in their theoretical structures. In addition, other issues were also addressed(Dr. Wilson’s lecture).  For examples, there are different ways for grouping such as units of selection or units of heredity, ‘type1’ or ‘type2’ group selection, group selection or group adaptation, and so on. The theoretical frameworks can be explained by agreement of the existence of the evolving in the total population. However, there are lots of different ways to find the conclusion.

   There is a new group selection that is different from the old group selection. Multiple equivalent frameworks are good example, and it also called as ‘pluralism’. It is applying on the selection of genes against genes. Important question here is that how a gene can evolve globally when it is locally disadvantageous.  Dr. Wilson spoke about actual model by introducing a controversial example for evolution of reducing virulence in parasites. The actual model has three-tier population structures. First is among parasite strains within hosts, and second one is among hosts within local groups, and third one is among local groups within the total population. Dr. Wilson explained that his model is one special case of what Hamilton suggested in the inclusive fitness model in1975.

   Dr. Wilson’s multilevel group selection theory was very interesting, but it was not easy to understand. However, it would be great theory in explaining complex biological systems. For example, I have been involved in the plant pathogen genomics projects, and Phytophthora species are main focus of mine. Phytophthora species are very virulent to many edible crops such as tomato, potato, and soybean. It’s really hard to understand their core biology because of multilevel interactions among hosts, pathogens, and environmental factors. Although there are available genome sequences(Tyler et al. 2006), the interpretation is limited on the gene level not expanding to ecological level. If I have a chance to interpret the biology between genome context and ecological context, it would be very wonderful and interesting. I strongly believe that multilevel selection theory can provide good evolutionary insight on the plant pathogen scientific community.

      References

      David Sloan Wilson, William Scott Green. 2007. Evolutionary Religious Studies (ERS): A Beginner’s Guide. Draft.

      Katja U. Heubel, Daniel J. Rankin and Hanna Kokko. 2008. How to go extinct by mating too much: population consequences of male mate choice and efficiency in a sexual asexual species complex. Oikos 118:513-520.

      Sober, E., Wilson, D. S. 1998. Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior. Edited by H. U. Press. Cambridge, MA.

      Tyler, B. M., S. Tripathy, X. Zhang, P. Dehal, R. H. Jiang, A. Aerts, F. D. Arredondo, L. Baxter, D. Bensasson, J. L. Beynon, J. Chapman, C. M. Damasceno, A. E. Dorrance, D. Dou, A. W. Dickerman, I. L. Dubchak, M. Garbelotto, M. Gijzen, S. G. Gordon, F. Govers, N. J. Grunwald, W. Huang, K. L. Ivors, R. W. Jones, S. Kamoun, K. Krampis, K. H. Lamour, M. K. Lee, W. H. McDonald, M. Medina, H. J. Meijer, E. K. Nordberg, D. J. Maclean, M. D. Ospina-Giraldo, P. F. Morris, V. Phuntumart, N. H. Putnam, S. Rash, J. K. Rose, Y. Sakihama, A. A. Salamov, A. Savidor, C. F. Scheuring, B. M. Smith, B. W. Sobral, A. Terry, T. A. Torto-Alalibo, J. Win, Z. Xu, H. Zhang, I. V. Grigoriev, D. S. Rokhsar, and J. L. Boore. 2006. Phytophthora genome sequences uncover evolutionary origins and mechanisms of pathogenesis. Science 313 (5791):1261-6.