Plasticity, Robustness, Development and Evolution

by Patrick Bateson, Peter Gluckman

How do we understand and explain the apparent dichotomy between plasticity and robustness in the context of development? Can we identify these complex processes without resorting to 'either/or' solutions? Written by two leaders in the field, this is the first book to fully unravel the complexity of the subject, explaining that the epigenetic processes generating plasticity and robustness are in fact deeply intertwined. It identifies the different mechanisms that generate robustness and the various forms of plasticity, before considering the functional significance of the integrated mechanisms and how the component processes might have evolved. Finally, it highlights the ways in which epigenetic mechanisms could be instrumental in driving evolutionary change. Essential reading for biologists and psychologists interested in epigenetics and evolution, this book is also a valuable resource for biological anthropologists, sociobiologists, child psychologists and paediatricians.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Evolution

166 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 30, 2011

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed Bateson and Gluckman's book, but I thought that parts of it lacked focus. Sometimes it seemed like they were all over the place in trying to draw together many different concepts without a real plan (or even ability) to synthesize all of them together. I think part of this problem stems from the incredibly varied kinds of phenomenon that fall under the umbrella of the term "plasticity." In the final chapter they make the point that the plasticity of polyphenisms and the plasticity of learning and memory are so different it's difficult to talk about them together. This is a great point, and I think they probably could have made it a little more clear earlier in the book.

I thought this book did work very well with David Stern's book, Evolution, Development, and the Predictable Genome. Stern does not touch on the topic of plasticity at all, though he does discuss robustness a little bit when discussing redundancy in pathways. In this book, however, the point is made that plasticity and robustness are extremely important factors when considering the development of an organism and its evolution. Stern's book clearly lays down a framework for thinking about evolution in his in-depth discussion of important factors such as pleiotropy and population effects. I think this framework also provides an important context for thinking about plasticity in evolution and how it may interact with all the concepts that Stern brings up. For example, would polyphenisms in a large population have a different effect on natural selection than in a small population? Which is more likely to arise? I think that Bateson and Gluckman would have benefited from placing their discussion more clearly in a larger evolutionary context, though I thought their treatment of the intersection between evolution and development was much stronger than David Stern's, who I thought focused more on just general evolution rather than taking variable development into account. I also thought that these two books complemented each other well in that Stern's discussion of serial epistasis and Bateman and Gluckson's thoughts about the stepwise acquisition of complex behaviors were very similar and complemented each other well as examples of how a complex system can arise from random or semi-random incremental processes over time.