Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Can We Understand Evolution Without Symbiogenesis?

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Reticulate Evolution

Part of the book series: Interdisciplinary Evolution Research ((IDER,volume 3))

Abstract

This work is a contribution to the literature and knowledge on evolution that takes into account the biological data obtained on symbiosis and symbiogenesis. Evolution is traditionally considered a gradual process essentially consisting of natural selection, conducted on minimal phenotypical variations that are the result of mutations and genetic recombinations to form new species. However, the biological world presents and involves symbiotic associations between different organisms to form consortia, a new structural life dimension and a symbiont-induced speciation. The acknowledgment of this reality implies a new understanding of the natural world, in which symbiogenesis plays an important role as an evolutive mechanism. Within this understanding, symbiosis is the key to the acquisition of new genomes and new metabolic capacities, driving living forms’ evolution and the establishment of biodiversity and complexity on Earth. This chapter provides information on some of the key figures and their major works on symbiosis and symbiogenesis and reinforces the importance of these concepts in our understanding of the natural world and the role they play in the establishing of the evolutionary complexity of living systems. In this context, the concept of the symbiogenic superorganism is also discussed.

…symbiosis is more than a mere casual and isolated biological phenomenon: it is in reality the most fundamental and universal order or law of life.

Hermann Reinheimer (1915)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Archibald JM (2011) Origin of eukaryotic cells: 40 years on. Symbiosis 54:69–86

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Archibald J (2014) One plus one equals one. Symbiosis and the evolution of complex life. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Boucher DH (1985) The idea of mutualism, past and future. In: Boucher DH (ed) The biology of mutualism: ecology and evolution. Croom Helm Ltd., Oxford University Press, New York, pp 1–28

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowler PJ (1975) The changing meaning of “evolution”. J Hist Ideas 36:95–114

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brucker RM, Bordenstein SR (2012) Speciation by symbiosis. Trends Ecol Evol 27(8):443–451

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Carrapiço F (2006a) Is the Azolla-Anabaena symbiosis a co-evolution case? General botany: traditions and perspectives. Materials of the International Conference, dedicated to 200th anniversary of the Kazan Botanical School (23–27 Jan 2006). Part I. Kazan, 2006, pp 193–195. Edited by Andrew Sitnykov and published by the Kazan University, Russia

    Google Scholar 

  • Carrapiço F (2006b) The origins of life and the mechanisms of biological evolution. Proceedings of SPIE 6309: 630900-1-630900-5

    Google Scholar 

  • Carrapiço F (2010a) Azolla as a superorganism. Its implication in symbiotic studies. In: Seckbach J, Grube M (eds) Symbioses and stress: joints ventures in biology, cellular origin, life in extreme habitats and astrobiology, vol 17. Springer, New York, pp 225–241

    Google Scholar 

  • Carrapiço F (2010b) How symbiogenic is evolution? Theory Biosci 129:135–139

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Carrapiço F (2012a) The symbiotic phenomenon in the evolutive context. In: Pombo O, Rahman S, Torres JM, Symon J (eds) Special sciences and the unity of science, logic, epistomology and the unity of science, vol 24. Springer Science+Business Media B.V, New York, pp 113–119

    Google Scholar 

  • Carrapiço F (2012b) Beyond neo-Darwinism. Building a symbiogenic theory of evolution. Abstracts of the International Colloquium on Emergence and non-Fundamentalist Metaphysics. Lisbon, 14–16 May 2012. (published in Kairos, Journal of Philosophy & Science 12:47–53, 2015)

    Google Scholar 

  • Corning PA (1996) The co-operative gene: on the role of synergy in evolution. Evol Theor 11:183–207

    Google Scholar 

  • Corning PA (2005) Holistic darwinism. Synergy, cybernetics, and the bioeconomics of evolution. The University Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Corning PA (2014) Systems theory and the role of synergy in the evolution of living systems. Syst Res 31:181–196

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corning PA, Szathmáry E (2015) “Synergistic selection”: a Darwinian frame for the evolution of complexity. J Theor Biol 371:45–58

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • De Bary A (1878) Ueber symbiose—Tageblatt 51 Versamml. Deutscher Naturforscher u. Aerzte, Cassel, pp 121–126

    Google Scholar 

  • De Bary A (1879) Die erscheinung der symbiose. Vortrag auf der Versammlung der Deutschen Naturforscher und Aertze zu Cassel, Strasburg: Verlag von Karl J. Trubner, pp 1–30

    Google Scholar 

  • Darwin C (1859) On the origin of species by means of natural selection or the preservation of favored races in the struggle for life. In: Murray J (ed), London

    Google Scholar 

  • Dawkins R (1976) The selfish gene. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Frank AB (1877) Ueber die biologischen Verhältnisse des Thallus einiger Krustenflechten. Beitr Biol Pfl 2(2):123–200

    Google Scholar 

  • Goksoyr J (1967) Evolution of eucaryotic cells. Nature 214:1161

    Google Scholar 

  • Gontier N (2007) Universal symbiogenesis: an alternative to universal selectionist accounts of evolution. Symbiosis 44:167–181

    Google Scholar 

  • Guerrero R, Margulis L, Berlanga M (2013) Symbiogenesis: the holobiont as unit of evolution. Int Microbiol 16:133–143

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Guilliermond A (1918) Sur l’origine mitochondriale des plastides. C. R. Hebd Séanc. Acad Sci, Paris 167:430–433

    Google Scholar 

  • Holldobler B, Wilson EO (2009) The superorganism: the beauty, elegance and strangeness of insect societies. W.W. Norton and Company, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Honegger R (2000) Simon Schwendener (1829–1919) and the dual hypothesis of lichens. Bryologist 103:167–183

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huxley J (1942) Evolution. The modern synthesis. George Allen & Unwin Ltd (eds). London

    Google Scholar 

  • Kozo-Polyansky B (2010) Symbiogenesis. A new principle of evolution. In: Fet V, Margulis L (trans) Harvard University Press, Cambridge (from the Russian edition, 1924)

    Google Scholar 

  • Khakhina LN (1992) Concepts of symbiogenesls. In: Marguhs L, McMenamin M (eds) A historical and critical study of the research of russian botanists. Yale University Press, New Haven

    Google Scholar 

  • Kutschera U (2011) From the scala naturae to the symbiogenic and dynamic tree of life. Biol Direct 6(33):1–25. doi:10.1186/1745-6150-6-33

    Google Scholar 

  • Kropotkin P (1902) Mutual aid. A factor of evolution. McClure Phillips, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Lipnicki IL (2015) The role of symbiosis in the transition of some eukaryotes from aquatic to terrestrial environments. Symbiosis 65:39–53. doi:10.1007/s13199-015-0321-7

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lamarck J-BM (1809) Philosophie zoologique, ou exposition des considérations relatives à l’histoire naturelle des animaux. Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Lumière A (1919) Le mythe des symbiotes. Masson et Cie. Ed., Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Margulis L (1990) Words as battle cries—symbiogenesis and the new field of endocytobiology. Bioscience 40(9):673–677

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Margulis L, Sagan D (2002) Acquiring genomes. A theory of the origin of species. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin W, Kowallik KV (1999) Annotated english translation of Mereschkowsky’s 1905 paper “Uber Natur und Ursprung der Chromatophoren im Pflanzenreich”. Eur J Phycol 34:287–295

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayr E (2001) What evolution is. In: Weidenfeld, Nicolson (eds) Basic books, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayr E (1942) Systematics and the origins of species, from the viewpoint of a zoologist. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Merezhkowsky C (1905) Uber natur und ursprung der chromatophoren im pflanzenreiche. Biol Centralbl 25(593–604):689–691

    Google Scholar 

  • Merezhkowsky C (1909) The theory of two plasms as foundation of symbiogenesis. A new doctrine on the origins of organisms. Proceedings of studies of the Imperial Kazan University, vol 12. pp 1–102

    Google Scholar 

  • Merezhkowsky C (1920) La plante considerée comme un complexe symbiotique. Bulletin de la Societé des Sciences Naturelles de l’Ouest de la France. 6:17–98

    Google Scholar 

  • Muller HJ (1927) Artificial transmutaion of the gene. Science 66(1699):84–87

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nylander W (1896) Les lichens des environs de Paris. Typographie Paul Schmidt, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Pereira L, Rodrigues T, Carrapiço F (2012) A symbiogenic way in the origin of life. In: Seckbach J (ed) Genesis—in the beginning. Precursors of life, chemical models and early. Biological evolution, cellular origin, life in extreme habitats and astrobiology, vol 22. Springer Science+Business Media, Dordrecht, pp 723–742. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-2941-4_36

  • Portier P (1918) Les symbiotes. In: Masson et Cie. (ed), Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Reid RGB (2007) Biological emergences. Evolution by natural experiment. MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Reif WE, Junker T, Hossfeld U (2000) The synthetic theory of evolution: general problems and german contribution to the synthesis. Theor Biosci 119:41–91

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reinheimer H (1913) Evolution by co-operation. A study in bio-cconomics. In: Paul KT (ed). Trubner & Co. Ltd., London

    Google Scholar 

  • Reinheimer H (1915) Symbiogenesis. The universal law of progressive evolution. Knapp, Drewett and Sons Ltd (eds), Westminster

    Google Scholar 

  • Reinheimer H (1920) Symbiosis. A socio-physiological study of evolution. Headley Brothers (eds), London

    Google Scholar 

  • Reinke J (1873) Zur kenntniss des rhizoms von Corallorhiza und Epipogon. Flora 31:145–209

    Google Scholar 

  • Rieppel O (2011) Evolutionary theory and the creation controversy. Springer, Heidelberg

    Google Scholar 

  • Sagan L (1967) On the origin of mitosing cells. J Theor Biol 14:225–274

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sapp J (1994) Evolution by association: a history of symbiosis. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Sapp J (2003) Genesis. The evolution of biology. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Sapp J, Carrapiço F, Zolotonosov M (2002) Symbiogenesis: the hidden face of Constantin Merezhkowsky. Hist Phil Life Sci 24:421–449

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sciama Y (2013) Penser coopération plutôt que compétition. Sci Vie 1147:139–148

    Google Scholar 

  • Selosse MA (2000) La symbiose: structures et fonctions, rôle écologique et évolutif. Vuibert (ed), Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Spencer H (1876) The principles of sociology. D. Appleton and Company (eds), New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor FJR (1974) Implications and extensions of the serial endosymbiosis theory of the origin of eukaryotes. Taxon 23(2/3):229–258

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor FJR (1976) Autogenous theories for the origin of eukaryotes. Taxon 25:377–390

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor FJR (1979) Symbioticism revisited: a discussion of the evolutionary impact of intracellular symbioses. Proc R Soc London B 204:267–286

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor J, Whalley JI, Hobbs AS, Battrick EM (1995) Beatrix potter 1866–1943. The artist and her world. Imago Publishing Limited, Hong Kong

    Google Scholar 

  • Todes DP (1989) Darwin without Malthus. The struggle for existence in Russian evolutionary thought. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Tower WL (1916) Review of the book symbiogenesis. The universal law of progressive evolution. Am J Sociol:695–696

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Bénéden PJ (1875) Les comensaux et les parasites dans le règne animal. Bibl Sci Int, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Villarreal L, Ryan F (2011) Viruses in host evolution: general principles and future extrapolations. Curr Top Virol 9:79–90

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wallin IE (1923) The mitochondria problem. Am Nat 57(650):255–261

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wallin IE (1927) Symbionticism and the origin of species. Williams and Wilkins (eds), Baltimore

    Google Scholar 

  • Wheeler WM (1911) The ant-colony as an organism. J Morphol 22(2):307–325

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wheeler WM (1928) The social insects, their origin and evolution. Harcourt, Brace & Company, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson EO (1975) Sociobiology. The new synthesis. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson DS, Sober E (1989) Reviving the superorganism. J Theor Biol 136:337–356

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zilber-Rosenberg I, Rosenberg E (2008) Role of microorganisms in the evolution of animals and plants: the hologenome theory of evolution. FEMS Microbiol Rev 32:723–735

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Nathalie Gontier and Maria Helena Costa for their encouragement in the development of this work and to Helena Carrapiço and Ben Farrand for the English revision of the text. Also, a word of gratitude to Jonathan Bujak for helping to obtain information about Hermann Reinheimer related to the 1911 England Census, and to Padmavathi Jayajeevan for the excellent work in publishing this chapter.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Ecology Evolution and Environmental Change (CE3C); Centre for Philosophy of Science, Department of Plant Biology, Faculty of science, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    Francisco Carrapiço

Authors
  1. Francisco Carrapiço
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Francisco Carrapiço .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. AppEEL—Applied Evolutionary Epistemology Lab, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    Nathalie Gontier

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Carrapiço, F. (2015). Can We Understand Evolution Without Symbiogenesis?. In: Gontier, N. (eds) Reticulate Evolution. Interdisciplinary Evolution Research, vol 3. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16345-1_3

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation