1 Principles of Molecular Evolution.
Werner Arber, Biozentrum, University of
Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
Abstract
The occasional occurrence of genetic variations is known
to be the driving force of biological evolution. Molecular mechanisms of
genetic variation can be investigated by two approaches. First, single
mutagenesis events, defined here as any change in the inherited DNA sequences,
can be observed one by one, which is best possible with microbial genomes.
Secondly, the DNA sequence comparison of differently related organisms can
reveal past events affecting the genome organization and locally limited
polymorphisms. A number of principles can be deduced from data so far
available.
1. Only a minority of DNA sequence changes are in
general favorable and provide a selective advantage. Many more DNA sequence
changes are unfavorable and provide a selective disadvantage. Many more DNA
sequence changes are unfavorable and give a selective disadvantage. Many other
changes are without an immediate phenotypic effect.
2. A considerable number of different specific
mechanisms of genetic variation contribute to the overall mutagenesis.
3. The specific mechanisms of mutagenesis can be
classified into three distinct natural strategies of genetic variation. These
are (a) local DNA sequence changes, (b) rearrangement of DNA segments within
the genome, and (c) acquisition of a DNA segment from a different kind of
organism by horizontal gene transfer.
4. The three natural strategies of genetic variation
are of different qualities regarding their contributions to biological
evolution.
5. Most events of genetic variation involve products
of so-called evolution genes. These act as variation generators and/or as
modulators of the frequency of genetic variation.
6. The products of evolution genes work coordinately
with non-genetic factors such as intrinsic properties of matter and
environmental effects.
7. Evolution genes must have been evolutionarily
fine-tuned for their present activities by the pressure of second-order
selection.
8. The living world thus cares actively for biological
evolution, which should not be attributed to errors and accidents affecting the
genome.
9. However, the directions of evolution are given by
natural selection together with the more or less randomly available genetic
variants.
10. The knowledge on functions of evolution genes has
an impact on the definition of the gene often thought to be strictly
deterministic. The actions of gene products generating genetic variations such
as recombinational reshuffling of DNA segments are inefficient and
non-reproducible or at most statistically reproducible.
11. Genes for the benefit of individual lives and
genes for the benefit of biological evolution are carried side by side on the
genome of each organism. This duality has deep philosophical dimensions.
Reference:
W.
Arber, Elements for a theory of molecular evolution. Gene 317, 3 -11 (2003).
2 Natural Selection in Genome Evolution and its General Implications.
Giorgio Bernardi, IUBS Secretary General. Laboratory of Molecular Evolution, Stazione
Zoologica Anton Dohrn, 80121
Abstract
This presentation will be a brief summary of a book
entitled “Structural and Evolutionary Genomics. Natural Selection in Genome
Evolution”. The major points which will be discussed are the structural and
evolutionary genomics of vertebrates and the role of natural selection and
random drift in genome evolution.
Very briefly, our main discoveries concerned the
compositional compartmentalization of the vertebrate genome into a mosaic of
isochores, the genome phenotypes, the genomic code, the bimodal distribution of
genes and its correlation with functional properties. These findings could not
be accounted for by the classical selection theory nor by the mutation-random
drift theory, Kimura’s neutral theory of evolution, nor by the nearly-neutral
theory of Ohta. This led us to investigate further the roles of natural
selection and random drift in genome evolution, to propose a paradigm shift
which could reconcile the neutral and the nearly-neutral theories with our view
of the dominant role played by natural selection in genome evolution and to
formulate a neo-selectionist model.
3 Science and Awareness: the
Actual and Possible Contribution of the Biology Community to Making
International Conventions Work.
Peter Bridgewater, Secretary General, Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971)
Abstract
This
paper attempts two objectives: firstly,
to describe the recent attempts to achieve some form of International
Environmental Governance, and, secondly, to set the nature of environmental
governance in a science context.
Attempting governance for the environment is, at one level, a wholly
recent phenomenon, deriving back to the late 1960’s. But at another, more visceral level, people
have been establishing governance systems to control, modify and manage their
environment since taking the branch on the evolutionary tree which led to Homo
sapiens – and possibly even before that.
But
governance of the environment by an individual, at a local level, village or
region is very different from governance at a national and international
level. The international level can be
viewed simply as a concatenation of lower levels, yet there are specific
requirements, needs, and drivers for international level governance.
Increasingly sophisticated science has produced better observations, and a
better theoretical base, for an understanding of environmental issues and
problems. In turn this has lead to rapid
realisation – and demand - for global level governance. The “ozone hole”, climate change, and
biodiversity loss are three key issues which have arisen from clearly
articulated scientific evidence influencing the policy process and instituting
new governance very rapidly indeed.
But
biodiversity loss is a critical example – it is well articulated in many arenas
of scientific discussion, but simply ignored by many political leaders and
decision makers. The Conventions dealing with biological diversity, through
their subsidiary bodies, have made some progress in changing this posture, yet
we are a very long way from having this issue high on the political
agenda. Why? The reasons include a lack of understanding
in the community about the problem – the major issue having been hi-jacked by
arguments about hotspots and charismatic species conservation – and a real lack
of involvement in any meaningful way by the global biodiversity community. The
remedy is better education at all levels, and a more concerted engagement by
the science community with the Governance processes.
Good
environmental governance is fundamental to strategies for environmental conservation
and management. Yet governance is often treated as a mere bureaucratic
exercise, while environmental science, and environmental “values” are confused
in both public and specialist discussions. This results from a disconnection in
communication, each group is talking without listening, listening without
hearing. This paper raises some issues around these questions, and proposes
some possible solutions, which will need a more pro-active stance by the
International Science Community.
4 Science Profile of the Arab
Region: Building Potentials.
Adnan Badran,
Abstract
The K-economy is linked to innovations and creativity of the outputs of
higher education. Higher education needs to be restructured around quality and
relevance. It has to be flexible and highly responding to change. R&D
expenditure indicators show that Arab contribution to world R&D is only
0.19% compared to an average of 2-3% in the industrialized countries. The world
expenditure on R&D has reached $ 522 billion or 1.7% of world GDP, where
the so called G-7 contributed to 87% of the world R&D. The
Although, there was an increase of R&D expenditure in absolute term
by Arab countries from $782 million (1996) to $ 1.1 billion (2001), this
R&D expenditure was 0.18% of GNP as compared to i.e.
As we compare the R& D expenditure by public vs private sector, we
find that the Arab Region R&D expenditure was 90% governmental, 10% only
funded by the private sector, while Japan 20% governmental as compared to 80%
private; Germany was 30% governmental as compared to 70% private; U.S. was 50%
governmental (due to contractual and military research). Examining the flow of R & D expenditure
to sectors in the Arab region, indicators show that agriculture and water
sector received 44%, health 18%, industry 16%, energy 9%, basic science 6%,
etc.
5 African Biodiversity and the destiny of humankind.
Himansu Baijnath, Ward Herbarium, University of Durban-Westville, Privat Bag X54001,
Durban 4000, South Africa.
Abstract
Over the last decade, progress in documenting and
conserving biodiversity for improved quality of life on the African continent
has benefited from the CBD, MAP, NEPAD and WSSD, but the fundamental challenge
of documenting biodiversity remains.
This paper presents the status of the rich and diverse biota of the
continent. Of the 271 vascular plant
families, 10% are endemic. The families are represented by 3750 genera of which
about 224 genera are endemic. In terms
of species, there are about 40-60 000 species of vascular plants. About 3% of the world's ferns (1200 taxa)
occur in
6 Contribution of Biological Sciences to Enhancing Food Security and
Improving the Livelihood of the Poor: The Experience of ICARDA.
Adel El-Baltagy, Director General, ICARDA,
Abstract
The twentieth century was marked by dramatic advances in
our understanding of how biological organisms function at the molecular level,
which ushered in a gene revolution. Biotechnologies, including techniques to
manipulate DNA, for a more productive, environmentally friendly agriculture
have became available. ICARDA has been successfully using several of the new
technologies, including tissue culture and the use of doubled haploids, DNA
molecular markers, carbon isotope discrimination, genomics and genetic
transformation, to combat the threat of
both abiotic and biotic stresses to its mandated cereal and legume crops. Germplasm resistant to diseases and pests
specific to dry areas, and such abiotic stresses as drought and heat, has been
developed and shared with the Center’s national partners. Research on the use
of biological insecticides and integrated pest management has also made
significant progress. The Center has also made tangible progress in germplasm
collection, conservation, characterization and utilization. This paper presents
examples of successes achieved in the improvement of wheat, barley, lentil,
chickpea, faba bean and grass pea.
While knowledge
continues to grow, the new challenges also continue to unfold. The key
challenges that lie ahead in the twenty-first century will involve the development
of agricultural systems and technologies that can cope with the global changes
in climate. Advances in biological sciences, combined with modern information
technology, can help to meet these challenges and contribute to food security,
particularly in developing countries of the world.
In spite of an impressive array of technological
innovations, however, poverty, hunger, and degradation of natural resources
continues. Harnessing the full benefits of technological innovations will hinge
on effective global partnerships in research and on community participation and
implementation of the required changes in public policy at the national level
to address contemporary development issues, primarily reducing the gap between
the rich and the poor, protecting the ecosystems and enhancing its
sustainability to support the future population growth, halting global warming,
and conserving the available agrobiodiversity.
7 Sustainable
Development and Science: the Paradoxical Situation of the World Peasants.
Bertrand Hervieu, Secretary General, CIHEAM,
Abstract
In reviewing the role of small peasant farmers in the
dynamics of sustainable development, we must first of all consider their
paradoxical situation at the beginning of the 21st Century
For my part, I would draw attention to eight paradoxes
in the agricultural world, which make it difficult either to grasp the
distinctive features of peasant population or to turn it into a front line
force for sustainable development.
The first paradox is the success of agriculture in the
North in its race to modernise.
The second paradox is the urbanisation of agriculture.
The third paradox is the separateness, even the
marginalisation of the agricultural world, in developed societies as in
developing societies.
The fourth paradox is the small peasant farmer
himself, who remains a mythical figure with which agriculture likes to be
identified, even though he has been driven out of agriculture.
As to the agrarian paradox, it has to do with the
emergence of very powerful agricultural concerns, precisely in those places
where agrarian societies have disappeared.
The sixth paradox is the appeal to nature combined
with the increasingly violent shift away from the natural order.
The seventh and eighth paradoxes are the agricultural
sector’s relationship to the state and the way in which the sector is
represented.
An overall view of these paradoxes, all linked to the
question of scientific development as applied to agriculture and to the
competitive situation in which small peasant farmers find themselves
world-wide, sheds light on the complex and ambiguous relationship that can
exist between scientific development and the future of farming populations.
8 Biological Resources and Biotechnology in a Globalising World.
Mustafa K. Tolba, President, International Centre for Environment and Development,
Abstract
This paper addresses two points:
Biological Resources
Biotechnology
On the first point, it discusses the way in which current
models of economic development cost natural resources, including biological
resources. It concludes that what is needed is a change in our perception of
wealth. Natural resources, including biological resources, endowment must be
included in every nation's inventory of wealth. There can be no hope of
preventing further environmental destruction unless we put a true value on the
natural patrimony, and end wasteful economic impatience.
On the second one, Biotechnology, it addresses the
issue of genetic engineering, its pros and cons, as well as the
issues of bio- prospecting and bio- remediation. It concludes by indicating
that what has been particularly lacking is an appreciation of the complex
linkages between sectoral activities, macro-economic policies and sustainable
development and how to internalize them in policies and development strategies.
This next step will require far greater collaboration among all concerned
agencies, and a far greater effort to ensure that best use is made of all available
resources for the promotion of sustainable development. It will also require
better procedures to review and evaluate the effectiveness of on-going
programs.
9 Science for Health and Well-being.
Mark L Wahlqvist, Director, Asia Pacific Health & Nutrition
Centre, Monash Asia Institute,
Abstract
A scientific basis for preventive health and health care is the acknowledged position of
most enlightened societies, however modulated by local belief and culture. Science has been slow, however, to underpin
the quest for well-being with
science, partly because it and its contributors are less measurable. The rapid progression now of the social and
neuro-behavioural sciences, compared with the more clinical and biomedical
sciences, has great prospects for advances in this area. Uncertainty
and shifting paradigms characterise science and ought to so inform policy
and individual choice arising from it.
This requires constant review of how uncertain, unpredictable or
unchangeable a notional “fact” is; and, for health and well-being, requires a
thorough risk benefit analysis with
its cost considerations and management strategy- at the individual, family, and
community, national and international levels.
Is there, ultimately, a science of
happiness, a significant ingredient of well-being?
More than this, a new
science and technology coalition of biomedical, food and nutritional,
psychosocial, behavioural and environmental sciences is required for how we
live, work, play and relate to environments which are resilient and
sustainable. This is a growing challenge
in science for health and well-being.
The challenge requires the life sciences to develop
partnerships well beyond theirs own ranks – with geographers, mathematicians,
physicists, astronomers, economists and more.
It is also likely to require greater acknowledgement of a host of
methods, not only through hypothesis – testing, by which knowledge has been and
can be derived.
10 Integrative Biology : The
Nexus of Development, Ecology, and Evolution.
Marvalee Wake, Department of Integrative
Biology,
Abstract
The conceptual basis for ‘integrative biology’
includes a trans-hierarchical approach to the exploration of complex
questions/problems, the use of multiple techniques, and the synthesis of
appropriate arenas of the sub-disciplines of science, biological and
otherwise. More than a decade ago, a new
synthesis of development emerged, bringing together the molecular biology of
the genetics of development, the organization of phenotypes, and insights into
mechanisms of evolutionary change. Now, that synthesis is beginning to
integrate an additional, significant, component---the environmental factors
that both regulate and disrupt differential gene expression, affect rates of
development, determine reproductive and developmental patterns, and provide
selection mechanisms that drive evolutionary change. “Ecological developmental
biology is the meeting of developmental biology with the real world. It
involves studying development in its natural context rather than only in the
laboratory” (Gilbert, Dev. Biol, 2001).
‘Eco-evo-devo’ includes a host of arenas of investigation, including
density-dependent morphological polyphenisms, predator-induced alteration in
developmental rates, context-dependent life-cycle progressions (e.g.,
temperature/photoperiod dependent metamorphosis), egg protection against
radiation, hormone mimics, and many others.
Work on these diverse problems is highly integrative of research at all
levels of the hierarchy of biological organization, and the genetics of
development can complement the ecology and physiology of development, so that a
new understanding of those elements that both stabilize populations and provide
for evolutionary change is emerging.
Examples of the integrative biology of amphibians illustrate many of
these issues, ranging from the evolution of development to the ecology of extinction.
11 The
role of Research, Training and Education in the Conservation and Sustainable
Use of Biodiversity and the Safe Application of Biotechnology.
Hamdallah Zedan,
Executive Director, Secretariat, Convention on Biological Diversity CBD/UNEP,
This paper has been prepared
jointly by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity and
UNESCO’s Division of Natural Science. It will be presented as a keynote address
during the first plenary session of the IUBS 28th General
Assembly and International Conference on Biological Sciences, Development and
Society to be held in
The
paper has the dual purpose of responding to a number of decisions by the
Conference of the Parties (COP) of the Convention on Biological Diversity
calling for the active engagement of the academic and scientific community in
the implementation of the various programmes of work of the Convention and is
also intended to provide substantive inputs to the IUBS Conference discussions.
The paper briefly introduces
the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) as the key instrument for the
conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and the fair and
equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the use of genetic resources. It
describes the potential and actual strategic role of the academic and research
community in supporting biodiversity education and training within the context
of the objectives of the Convention and its Strategic Plan. It briefly traces
the main steps of the CBD roadmap from article 13 of the Convention that is
devoted to public education and awareness, to the elaboration of a programme of
work on biodiversity communication, education and public awareness (CEPA), and
illustrates the key role of science in providing informed content to such CEPA
actions.
It then explores the role of education and training in
addressing some of the key issues relating to sustainable development as
identified at the World Summit on Sustainable Development. It also examines the
responsibility of the United Nations Decade for Education for Sustainable
Development to generate the right momentum for creating the conditions
necessary to deliver appropriate education programmes in order to meet the main
needs.
The specific themes to be
addressed by the IUBS Conference are of direct relevance to the work of the
Convention and have been used as the frame of reference for the key issues
articulated by the paper. Specifically, it examines opportunities for
collaboration between the Convention, UNESCO and the IUBS network academic and
research partners focusing on three priority areas of common interest, namely; sustainable terrestrial resources of arid
environments, sustainable aquatic resources, and bioinformatics and sustainable
development. Employing a case-study
approach it illustrates how research (including through the establishment of
knowledge networks) has contributed to generating solutions to societal
problems related to these issues. Furthermore, it demonstrates how education
and training have supported the delivery of such research activities.
The concluding section
provides practical suggestions and proposals on priority areas of focus,
content, formats, key partnerships, institutional arrangements and realistic
time frames for the development and delivery of the necessary research,
training and education programmes/materials to support the work of Parties
to the Convention.