Extended Heredity : A New Understanding of Inheritance and Evolution / Troy Day, Russell Bonduriansky.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bonduriansky, Russell, author.

Day, Troy, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Evolution (Biology).

Genetics.

Heredity.

Physical Description:

1 online resource : 40 b/w illus.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2018]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

How genes are not the only basis of heredity-and what this means for evolution, human life, and diseaseFor much of the twentieth century it was assumed that genes alone mediate the transmission of biological information across generations and provide the raw material for natural selection. In Extended Heredity, leading evolutionary biologists Russell Bonduriansky and Troy Day challenge this premise. Drawing on the latest research, they demonstrate that what happens during our lifetimes--and even our grandparents' and great-grandparents' lifetimes-can influence the features of our descendants. On the basis of these discoveries, Bonduriansky and Day develop an extended concept of heredity that upends ideas about how traits can and cannot be transmitted across generations. By examining the history of the gene-centered view in modern biology and reassessing fundamental tenets of evolutionary theory, Bonduriansky and Day show that nongenetic inheritance-involving epigenetic, environmental, behavioral, and cultural factors-could play an important role in evolution. The discovery of nongenetic inheritance therefore has major implications for key questions in evolutionary biology, as well as human health.Extended Heredity reappraises long-held ideas and opens the door to a new understanding of inheritance and evolution.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

1. How to Construct an Organism

2. Heredity from First Principles

3. The Triumph of the Gene

4. Monsters, Worms, and Rats

5. The Nongenetic Inheritance Spectrum

6. Evolution with Extended Heredity

7. Why Extended Heredity Matters

8. Apples and Oranges?

9. A New Perspective on Old Questions

10. Extended Heredity in Human Life

Acknowledgments

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9781400890156

1400890152

OCLC:

1024311073