D-subgenome bias of Xcm resistance genes in tetraploid Gossypium (cotton) suggests that polyploid formation has created novel avenues for evolution

A detailed RFLP map was used to determine the chromosomal locations and subgenomic distributions of cotton (Gossypium) genes/QTLs that confer resistance to the bacterial blight pathogen, Xanthomonas campestris pv. malvacearum (Xcm). Genetic mapping generally corroborated classic predictions regarding the number and dosage effects of genes conferring Xcm resistance. One recessive allele (b6) was a noteworthy exception to the genetic dominance of most plant resistance alleles. This recessive allele appeared to uncover additional QTLs from both resistant and ostensibly susceptible genotypes, some of which corresponded in location to resistance (R)-genes effective against other Xcm races. One putatively "defeated" resistance allele (B3) reduced severity of Xcm damage by "virulent" races. Among the six resistance genes derived from tetraploid cottons, five (83%) mapped to D-subgenome chromosomes-if each subgenome were equally likely to evolve new R-gene alleles, this level of bias would occur in only about 1.6% of cases. Possible explanations of this bias include biogeographic factors, differences in evolutionary rates between subgenomes, gene conversion or other intergenomic exchanges that escaped detection by genetic mapping, or other factors. A significant D-subgenome bias of Xcm resistance genes may suggest that polyploid formation has offered novel avenues for phenotypic response to selection.     

Domestication and comparative psychology: Status and strategy.

Study of animal domestication lacks a conceptual framework to integrate genetic and environmental factors into a coherent theory of domestic phenotypes, and researchers have conceptually and experimentally separated the contributions of these influences. We critically examine genetic and environmental approaches to domestication and describe an alternative, developmental systems approach. In this view, domestic phenotypes are not transmitted in the genes nor contained in features of captive environments but are constructed by coaction of organic, organismic, and environmental factors during ontogeny. Thus, animals are similar or not in the expression of phenotypic traits, not because they share or lack similar genes, but because they share or lack similar developmental systems. This view of heredity and development directs attention to the animal–context transaction and includes many variables that have been omitted from analyses of domestication. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Schema acquisition from a single example.

Compares similarity-based learning (SBL) and explanation-based learning (EBL) approaches to schema acquisition. In SBL approaches, concept formation is based on similarity across multiple examples. However, these approaches seem to be appropriate when the learner cannot apply existing knowledge and when the concepts to be learned are nonexplanatory. EBL approaches assume that a schema can be acquired from even a single example by constructing an explanation of the example using background knowledge, and generalizing the resulting explanation. However, unlike the current EBL theories, Exp 1 showed significant EBL occurred only when the background information learned during the experiment was actively used by the Ss. Exp 2 showed the generality of EBL mechanisms across a variety of materials and test procedures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Genome phylogeny based on gene content

Species phylogenies derived from comparisons of single genes are rarely consistent with each other, due to horizontal gene transfer, unrecognized paralogy and highly variable rates of evolution. The advent of completely sequenced genomes allows the construction of a phylogeny that is less sensitive to such inconsistencies and more representative of whole-genomes than are single-gene trees. Here, we present a distance-based phylogeny constructed on the basis of gene content, rather than on sequence identity, of 13 completely sequenced genomes of unicellular species. The similarity between two species is defined as the number of genes that they have in common divided by their total number of genes. In this type of phylogenetic analysis, evolutionary distance can be interpreted in terms of evolutionary events such as the acquisition and loss of genes, whereas the underlying properties (the gene content) can be interpreted in terms of function. As such, it takes a position intermediate to phylogenies based on single genes and phylogenies based on phenotypic characteristics. Although our comprehensive genome phylogeny is independent of phylogenies based on the level of sequence identity of individual genes, it correlates with the standard reference of prokarytic phylogeny based on sequence similarity of 16s rRNA. Thus, shared gene content between genomes is quantitatively determined by phylogeny, rather than by phenotype, and horizontal gene transfer has only a limited role in determining the gene content of genomes.     

Evolution and taxonomy of positive-strand RNA viruses: implications of comparative analysis of amino acid sequences

Despite the rapid mutational change that is typical of positive-strand RNA viruses, enzymes mediating the replication and expression of virus genomes contain arrays of conserved sequence motifs. Proteins with such motifs include RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, putative RNA helicase, chymotrypsin-like and papain-like proteases, and methyltransferases. The genes for these proteins form partially conserved modules in large subsets of viruses. A concept of the virus genome as a relatively evolutionarily stable "core" of housekeeping genes accompanied by a much more flexible "shell" consisting mostly of genes coding for virion components and various accessory proteins is discussed. Shuffling of the "shell" genes including genome reorganization and recombination between remote groups of viruses is considered to be one of the major factors of virus evolution. Multiple alignments for the conserved viral proteins were constructed and used to generate the respective phylogenetic trees. Based primarily on the tentative phylogeny for the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, which is the only universally conserved protein of positive-strand RNA viruses, three large classes of viruses, each consisting of distinct smaller divisions, were delineated. A strong correlation was observed between this grouping and the tentative phylogenies for the other conserved proteins as well as the arrangement of genes encoding these proteins in the virus genome. A comparable correlation with the polymerase phylogeny was not found for genes encoding virion components or for genome expression strategies. It is surmised that several types of arrangement of the "shell" genes as well as basic mechanisms of expression could have evolved independently in different evolutionary lineages. The grouping revealed by phylogenetic analysis may provide the basis for revision of virus classification, and phylogenetic taxonomy of positive-strand RNA viruses is outlined. Some of the phylogenetically derived divisions of positive-strand RNA viruses also include double-stranded RNA viruses, indicating that in certain cases the type of genome nucleic acid may not be a reliable taxonomic criterion for viruses. Hypothetical evolutionary scenarios for positive-strand RNA viruses are proposed. It is hypothesized that all positive-strand RNA viruses and some related double-stranded RNA viruses could have evolved from a common ancestor virus that contained genes for RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, a chymotrypsin-related protease that also functioned as the capsid protein, and possibly an RNA helicase.     

Review of The Robot's Rebellion: Finding Meaning in the Age of Darwin.

Review of book The Robot's Rebellion: Finding Meaning in the Age of Darwin by Keith E. Stanovich (see record 2004-95228-000). In his interesting scholarly book, The Robot's Rebellion, Stanovich leads us on a journey to find meaning in a world populated by mortal biological vehicles, the robots, put on earth to replicate their masters' selfish genes. If the genes do a satisfactory job programming the robots, then the genes replicate in perpetuity and are, therefore, immortal. Stanovich's basic assumptions are: a) vehicles are designed to replicate genes; b) at least in human animals, the brain houses two minds; c) the first mind, System 1 or The Autonomous Set of Systems, evolved much earlier in evolutionary history than did the second mind, System 2 or the Analytic System; d) System 1 is associative, parallel, fast to respond, and designed to automatically serve its genetic master; e) System 2 is rule-based, serial, slow to respond, not aware of System 1 functioning but sometimes privy to System 1 output, controls executive functioning, and is capable of self-evaluation and leading the rebellion against its genetic master; and, f) memes, culturally generated ideas passed on by nongenetic means, can sometimes be as effective as System 1 at squashing the rebellion. These assumptions are derived from work in cognitive science and evolutionary biology, and provide a solid foundation for the book. Both the metaphor and the basic assumptions are embedded in detailed and informative reviews of decision theory, evolutionary psychology, memetic theory, rational philosophy, and utility theory. The interweaving of metaphor and review provides a framework that allows Stanovich to make inferences to help the general reader understand "the implications of modern science" (p. xi). He also develops criteria to evaluate memes that are needed in his quest to find meaning in human existence. In combination with the basic assumptions, these criteria are used to create an ethical ideology that will be embraced by some readers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evolutionary scales lack utility: A reply to Yarczower and Hazlett.

M. Yarczower and L. Hazlett (see record 1978-24293-001) have proposed that evolutionary scaling based on anagenesis (biological improvement) is an acceptable—even desirable—facet of contemporary comparative psychology. Strong disagreement with this thesis is offered. Criticisms are based on (a) their misconception of anagenesis, (b) inconsistencies in the use of the term "evolutionary grades," (c) typological thinking, and (d) the lack of utility of evolutionary scales. Reversion to evolutionary scaling by comparative psychologists would disrupt the ongoing synthesis of comparative psychology with other evolutionary sciences. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Genetics, the Big Five, and the tendency to be self-employed.

We applied multivariate genetics techniques to a sample of 3,412 monozygotic and dizygotic twins from the United Kingdom and 1,300 monozygotic and dizygotic twins from the United States to examine whether genetic factors account for part of the covariance between the Big Five personality characteristics and the tendency to be an entrepreneur. We found that common genes influenced the phenotypic correlations between only Extraversion and Openness to Experience and the tendency to be an entrepreneur. Although the phenotypic correlations between the personality characteristics and the tendency to be an entrepreneur were small in size, genetic factors accounted for most of them. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Haidt's Moral Intuitionist Theory: A Psychological and Philosophical Critique.

Jon Haidt's (2001) proposal (see record 2001-18918-008) for a moral intutionist theory of morality is criticized on psychological and philosophical grounds, including (a) the apparent reduction of social influence to one kind, overt compliance, and the virtual ignoring of the role of persuasion in moral and other decision making; (b) the failure to distinguish development of a psychological entity from its deployment or functioning; and (c) the failure to consider, in distinguishing cause and reason as explanatory concepts, the motivating power of reasons. Arguments for an evolutionary approach to morality are also faulted on the grounds that they assume that adaptation is served by nonmoral rather than moral (fairness- and benevolence-based) criteria. Finally, the authors suggest that an intuitionist approach such as that of Haidt may obscure important aspects of moral decision making. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evolutionary biology and personality psychology: Toward a conception of human nature and individual differences.

Identifies several key issues in personality psychology, focusing on the distinction between approaches emphasizing species-typical tendencies and those emphasizing systematic variation around those tendencies. Typological and population approaches in evolutionary biology are discussed, highlighting the alternative aims, assumptions, methods, and limitations of each. Genotypic universality, automaticity, and adaptation are examined as potential criteria for identifying important species-typical characteristics; and heritability, inclusive fitness, sexual selection, and assortative mating are evaluated as criteria for designating important individual differences. Suggestions are made for resolving some of the conceptual and operational difficulties entailed by implementing these criteria. It is argued that, although substantial problems remain, evolutionary biology can provide a means for identifying relations between individual differences and species-typical characteristics. (92 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The adaptive design of the human psyche: Psychoanalysis, evolutionary biology, and the therapeutic process.

Reviews the book, The adaptive design of the human psyche: Psychoanalysis, evolutionary biology, and the therapeutic process by Malcolm O. Slavin and Daniel Kriegman (see record 1992-98703-000). The authors have been "absorbed and possessed" for some 25 years by "vexing questions...about whether psychoanalytic notions about the seemingly irrational, conflict-filled nature of the human mind could be reconciled with the Darwinian search for the fundamentally adaptive designs that govern all living creatures" (p. vii). They are knowledgeable and sophisticated psychoanalytic theorists eminently qualified to address such questions, experienced and insightful clinicians, and deeply informed students of modern evolutionary knowledge and theory. This book records their current thinking; their passionate quest for answers continues. This review discusses three significant contributions this book makes to psychoanalytic thought: (a) Slavin and Kriegman's discussion of how evolutionary biology is relevant to psychoanalytic discourse, (b) their analysis of the underlying assumptions of two main psychoanalytic narratives--the classical and the relational--and their integration of these narratives into a new synthesis informed by evolutionary biology, and (c) their exploration of the hidden adaptive dimensions of familiar psychodynamic processes when these processes are viewed in an evolutionary context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The fat child and the behavioral scientist-practitioner: It's time to get together.

Discusses several issues surrounding the behavioral control of childhood obesity. Specifically, the author (a) discusses whether the obese child should be treated, (b) reviews the literature on available behavior therapy approaches, and (c) argues about necessary dependent variables. It is strongly noted that the behavioral scientist-practitioner should assume a greater role in investigating childhood obesity. (French summary) (98 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mental disorder as a Roschian concept: A critique of Wakefield's "harmful dysfunction" analysis.

J. C. Wakefield (1992a, 1992b, 1993) recently proposed that mental disorder is best conceptualized as a "harmful dysfunction," whereby "harm" is a value judgment regarding the undesirability of a condition, and "dysfunction" is the failure of a system to function as designed by natural selection. The authors maintain, however, that (a) many mental functions are not direct evolutionary adaptations, but rather adaptively neutral by-products of adaptations, (b) Wakefield's concept of the evolutionarily designed response neglects the fact that natural selection almost invariably results in substantial variability across individuals, and (c) many consensual disorders represent evolutionarily adaptive reactions to danger or loss. The authors propose that mental disorder is a Roschian concept characterized by instrinsically fuzzy boundaries and that Wakefield's analysis may only prolong scientific debate on a fundamentally nonscientific issue. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The antiestrogen tamoxifen blocks the delayed rectifier potassium current, IKr, in rabbit ventricular myocytes

Recently, two reports [R. E. Davis et al. (1997) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94, 4564-4569 and E. Fahy et al. (1997) Nucleic Acids Res. 25, 3102-3109] described a series of heteroplasmic mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations in the genes encoding two cytochrome c oxidase subunits (CO1 and CO2) which segregated in higher abundance with Alzheimer's disease subjects than controls. Using mtDNA-depleted NT2 cells, we provide further evidence that these two reports are erroneously based on a PCR artifact arising from the amplification of nuclear DNA encoded mtDNA pseudogenes (mtDNA psi s). Our findings are similar, but not identical, to other recent studies of these putative mtDNA psi sequences. This sequence variability may indicate that multiple mtDNA psi s, all of comparatively recent evolutionary origin are involved. While such pseudogenes are interesting in that they provide a molecular evolutionary "snapshot" of human ancestral mtDNA, it is unlikely that they play any role in the etiology of Alzheimer's disease.     

A three-person perspective on transference.

Different approaches to psychoanalysis may be classed according to the number of persons that they assume to be necessary in order to adequately describe mental life. One-person approaches assume the basic autonomy of the individual to act as a subject in her world, while 2-person approaches assume the irreducibility of object and subject, their essential complementarity and their mutual affirmation as subjects. Three-person approaches, on which the present article focuses, argue that the subject can fully develop only by creating enough space for herself among other persons who compete for subject positions. Such space is created in relation to (at least) 2 other subjects, hence the system of 3 persons. In the 3-person perspective, the position of the subject is defined as First, and the Second is defined by the one with whom the subject identifies and in whom she mirrors herself through cycles of projection and introjection. The position of the Third involves the personification of the cultural matrix and, especially, the way language informs our ability to relate to each other. This is best represented in the universal system of personal pronouns: the subject takes the position of the 1st person (I), the Second takes the position of the 2nd person (You), and the Third is posited as the 3rd person (she or he and it). In psychoanalytic therapy, the patient takes the position of the Subject, the First. Transference is construed as the superposition of both the 2nd and the 3rd persons upon the figure of the analyst, a mental process that (re)creates the necessary conditions for the development of subjecthood. As a result, in the discourse of transference, the position of the analyst keeps fluctuating between the 2nd and 3rd positions: When one takes place on the actual level, the other acts in the background, and vice versa. The therapeutic consequences of this view are discussed; for example, transference love is construed as a process in which the 2nd person struggles to dominate the positioning of the analyst. Other transferential configurations are also discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Genes, brains, and language: An epistemological examination of how genes can underlie human cognitive behavior.

How do genes encode for the formation of morphological structures such as the brain? Can genetic material also encode for behavior such as cognition, language, or culture? For many years, evolutionary biologists as well as scholars who work within extrabiological fields such as psychology, linguistics, and archaeology could only answer the above two questions in a speculative manner. This is because until recently, empirical observations on how genes underlie anatomy or behavior were generally lacking. This situation has now changed. Several genes (MCPH1-MCPH6) have been implicated in the regulation of brain size and a first gene (the FOXP2 gene) has been identified that might underlie linguistic behavior. These discoveries allow us to finally test some of the long-standing theoretical assumptions on how genes do or do not determine morphology and behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality and psychopathology: Genetic perspectives.

Genetic factors exert an important influence on adult personality traits, accounting for anywhere between 30–60% of the variance. Heredity is also important for most forms of psychopathology and plays a major role in several theories that relate personality to psychopathology. Despite this, there has been surprisingly little multivariate genetic research reported on joint analyses of personality and psychopathology. The small amount of available data suggests that genes may account for over 50% of the observed correlation between neuroticism and state symptoms of anxiety and depression. The mechanisms behind such strong genetic correlations are crucial for understanding the causal relationship between a personality trait and a disorder because genetically influenced biological systems may operate as exogenous "3rd-party" factors that are responsible for what appear to be phenotypic cause–effect relationships. How recent analytical advances in behavior genetics can use multivariate family data to address questions about the causal role of personality in psychopathology is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The genetics and biology of true love: Prosocial biological affects and the left hemisphere.

J. R. Gray (2002) questioned the conceptual basis and empirical support for prosocial biological affects and was skeptical whether the distinction between selfish versus prosocial biological affects can contribute to the discussion regarding hemispheric differences. In reply, hemispheric differences in emotional experience and expression are considered, with the suggestion that the individualist-prosocial distinction may indeed provide a useful addition to traditional higher-level cognitive approaches. Recent empirical evidence relating to prosocial biological affects and emotions is reviewed, and the conceptual basis for prosocial biological affects and emotions is expanded on, with particular reference to answering "selfish gene" conceptualizations. Related genes can exist in different individual organisms, forming the basis for an essential and authentic prosociality: genuine altruism or "true love." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Science, fallacies and ethics.

Psychological experiments with human subjects are frequently based on faulty assumptions which may lead not only to erroneous conclusions but also to warped ethics. Motivational studies often assume implicity and without empirical evidence different motives in E and in S for participating in the experiment. The principle of parsimony requires a single explanation for E's and S's behavior when it is virtually identical. Milgram's experiments on "obedience" are used to illustrate the application of identical explanatory principles to E's and S's behavior and are shown to have tested the release of aggression in a situation which facilitated the use of rationalization and displacement. Experiments with human Ss are shown to be undemocratic and unnecessary in instances where the behavior of the Ss can be predicted from E's behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Frequency of migrants and migratory activity are genetically correlated in a bird population: evolutionary implications

Most migratory bird populations are composed of individuals that migrate and individuals that remain resident. While the role of ecological factors in maintaining this behavioral dimorphism has received much attention, the importance of genetic constraints on the evolution of avian migration has not yet been considered. Drawing on the recorded migratory activities of 775 blackcaps (Sylvia atricapilla) from a partially migratory population in southern France, we tested two alternative genetic models about the relationship between incidence and amount of migratory activity. The amount of migratory activity could be the continuous variable "underlying" the phenotypic expression of migratory urge, or, alternatively, the expression of both traits could be controlled by two separate genetic systems. The distributions of migratory activities in five different cohorts and the inheritance pattern derived from selective breeding experiments both indicate that incidence and amount of migratory activity are two aspects of one trait. Thus, all birds without measurable activity have activity levels at the low end of a continuous distribution, below the limit of expression or detection. The phenotypic dichotomy "migrant-nonmigrant" is caused by a threshold which may not be fixed but influenced both genetically and environmentally. This finding has profound implications for the evolution of migration: the transition from migratoriness to residency should not only be driven by selection favoring resident birds but also by selection for lower migratory activity. This potential for selection on two aspects, residency and migration distance, of the same trait may enable extremely rapid evolutionary changes to occur in migratory behavior.