Evolutionary physiology

Evolutionary physiology is the study of the biological evolution of physiological structures and processes; that is, the manner in which the functional characteristics of individuals in a population of organisms have responded to natural selection across multiple generations during the history of the population. It is a sub-discipline of both physiology and evolutionary biology. Practitioners in the field come from a variety of backgrounds, including physiology, evolutionary biology, ecology, and genetics. Accordingly, the range of phenotypes studied by evolutionary physiologists is broad, including life history, behavior, whole-organism performance, functional morphology, biomechanics, anatomy, classical physiology, endocrinology, biochemistry, and molecular evolution. The field is closely related to comparative physiology and environmental physiology, and its findings are a major concern of evolutionary medicine. One definition that has been offered is "the study of the physiological basis of fitness, namely, correlated evolution (including constraints and trade-offs) of physiological form and function associated with the environment, diet, homeostasis, energy management, longevity, and mortality and life history characteristics". As the name implies, evolutionary physiology is the product of what were at one time two distinct scientific disciplines. According to Garland and Carter, evolutionary physiology arose in the late 1970s, following debates concerning the metabolic and thermoregulatory status of dinosaurs (see physiology of dinosaurs) and mammal-like reptiles. This period was followed by attempts in the early 1980s to integrate quantitative genetics into evolutionary biology, which had spillover effects on other fields, such as behavioral ecology and ecophysiology. In the mid- to late 1980s, phylogenetic comparative methods started to become popular in many fields, including physiological ecology and comparative physiology. A 1987 volume titled New Directions in Ecological Physiology had little ecology but a considerable emphasis on evolutionary topics.

About this result

This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.

Related publications (60)

Related people (13)

Related units (12)

Related concepts (14)

Related lectures (14)

Evolutionary medicine

Evolutionary medicine or Darwinian medicine is the application of modern evolutionary theory to understanding health and disease. Modern biomedical research and practice have focused on the molecular and physiological mechanisms underlying health and disease, while evolutionary medicine focuses on the question of why evolution has shaped these mechanisms in ways that may leave us susceptible to disease. The evolutionary approach has driven important advances in the understanding of cancer, autoimmune disease, and anatomy.

Allometry

Allometry is the study of the relationship of body size to shape, anatomy, physiology and finally behaviour, first outlined by Otto Snell in 1892, by D'Arcy Thompson in 1917 in On Growth and Form and by Julian Huxley in 1932. Allometry is a well-known study, particularly in statistical shape analysis for its theoretical developments, as well as in biology for practical applications to the differential growth rates of the parts of a living organism's body. One application is in the study of various insect species (e.

Phenotypic plasticity

Phenotypic plasticity refers to some of the changes in an organism's behavior, morphology and physiology in response to a unique environment. Fundamental to the way in which organisms cope with environmental variation, phenotypic plasticity encompasses all types of environmentally induced changes (e.g. morphological, physiological, behavioural, phenological) that may or may not be permanent throughout an individual's lifespan.

Protein folding: energy landscapes and molecular dynamics PHYS-644: Lecture series on advances in Physics

Covers protein folding, from molecular dynamics to sequence design criteria and the challenges of the energy landscape.

Underground Architecture MOOC: Groundscape Architecture Design Lab, re-thinking cities underground

Explores the unique architectural features of underground spaces and their design implications.

Protein Residue Coevolution Analysis PHYS-754: Lecture series on scientific machine learning

Delves into analyzing residue coevolution in protein families to capture native contacts and predict spatial proximity and protein interactions.

Invasive palms have more efficient and prolonged CO2 assimilation compared to native sub-Mediterranean vegetation

Charlotte Grossiord, Christoph Bachofen, Thibaut Michel Georges Juillard, Janisse Deluigi, Marco Conedera

In sub-Mediterranean ecosystems, shade-tolerant broadleaf evergreens, especially the invasive Trachycarpus fortunei, are spreading uncontrollably in the forest understorey, impeding the regeneration of the native deciduous woody vegetation. Most invasive s ...

Amsterdam2024

Towards a metabolic theory of catchments: scaling of water and carbon fluxes with size

Sara Bonetti, Francesca Bassani

Allometric scaling relations are widely used to link biological processes in nature. They are typically expressed as power laws, postulating that the metabolic rate of an organism scales as its mass to the power of an allometric exponent, which ranges betw ...

2024

Development of a Robotic Microsurgeon for Embryonic Research

Ece Özelçi

Understanding how biological matter takes its shape is instrumental to biology, bioengineering, medicine, and bioinspired engineering. Gaining information on the principles of morphogenesis could enable clinicians to correct developmental abnormalities, ev ...

EPFL2023