Evolutionary Biology Exobiology and Evolutionary Mechanisms

Part I  History of Great Discoveries

1 The First Experiments of Ascidian and Sea Urchin Eggs Fertilization

Margherita Raineri, Erki Tammiksaar

Part II  Evolutionary Biology Concepts

2 Ontic Openness as Key Factor in the Evolution of Biological Systems

Søren Nors Nielsen and Claus Emmeche

3 Effects of Epistasis and Pleiotropy on Fitness Landscapes

Bjørn Østman

Part III  Exobiology and Origin of Life

4 Autocatalytic Sets: The Origin of Life, Evolution, and Functional Organization

Wim Hordijk, Mike Steel and Stuart Kauffman

5 Interactions of Clay Minerals with RNA Components

Hideo Hashizume, Sjerry van der Gaast, Benny K.G. Theng

6 Bottom-up Protocell Design: Gaining Insights in the Emergence of Complex Functions

Rafał Wieczorek, Michael C. Wamberg, Anders N. Albertsen, Philipp M. G. Löffler and Pierre-Alain Monnard

7 From Life to Exolife: The interdependence of astrobiology and evolutionary biology

Jack T. O’Malley-James and Stefanie Lutz

8 The Possible Roles of Water in the Prebiotic Chemical Evolution of DNA ― An Approach by Single Molecule Studies

Shuxun Cui

Part IV  Evolutionary Mechanisms

9 Domain Architecture Evolution of Metazoan Proteins

László Patthy

10 Of Trees and Bushes: Phylogenetic Networks as Tools to Detect, Visualize and Model Reticulate Evolution

Antonio Hernandez-Lopez

11 Horizontal Acquisition of Prokaryotic Genes for Eukaryote Functioning and Niche Adaptation

Maxime Bruto, Claire Prigent-Combaret, Patricia Luis, Grégory Hoff, Yvan Moënne-Loccoz and Daniel Muller

12 Molecular Evolution of Disrupted Transfer RNA Genes and Their Introns in Archaea

Akio Kanai

13 Memory of Temperature in the Seasonal Control of Flowering Time: an Unexplored Link Between Meteorology and Molecular Biology

Hiroshi Kudoh and Atsushi J. Nagano

14 Current Approaches in Spatial Genetics

V. Montano, A. Eriksson, A. Manica and Y. Moodley

15 Consequences of Segregation and Genetic Exchange on Adaptability in Arbuscular Mycorrhizal fungi (AMF)

Caroline Angelard and Ian.R Sanders

16 Mitochondrial Genes, Sex Determination and Hermaphroditism in Freshwater Mussels (Bivalvia: Unionoida).

Donald T. Stewart, Walter R. Hoeh, Gerhard Bauer, and Sophie Breton

17 Variable Lymphocyte Receptors in JawLess Vertebrates: Illuminating the Origin and Early Evolution of Adaptive Immunity

Sabyasachi Das and Masayuki Hirano

18 An Evo-Devo Perspective on Hybrid Infertility and Speciation

Priscilla Ambrosi, Sebastian Chadha, Emma Yang, Rui Sousa-Neves and Claudia M Mizutani

19 Genetic and Molecular Dissection of Animal Decision-Making: A New Frontier for Genetic Analysis

Youngmin Chu, Joseph Schinaman and Rui Sousa-Neves