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Symbiogenesis, natural selection, and the dynamic Earth

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Abstract

One century ago, Constantin S. Mereschkowsky introduced the symbiogenesis theory for the origin of chloroplasts from ancient cyanobacteria which was later supplemented by Ivan E. Wallin’s proposal that mitochondria evolved from once free-living bacteria. Today, this Mereschkowsky–Wallin principle of symbiogenesis, which is also known as the serial primary endosymbiosis theory, explains the evolutionary origin of eukaryotic cells and hence the emergence of all eukaryotes (protists, fungi, animals and plants). In 1858, the concept of natural selection was described independently by Charles Darwin and Alfred R. Wallace. In the same year, Antonio Snider-Pellegrini proposed the idea of shifting continents, which was later expanded by Alfred Wegener, who published his theory of continental drift eight decades ago. Today, directional selection is accepted as the major cause of adaptive evolution within natural populations of micro- and macro-organisms and the theory of the dynamic Earth (plate tectonics) is well supported. In this article, I combine the processes and principles of symbiogenesis, natural selection and the dynamic Earth and propose an integrative ‘synade-model’ of macroevolution which takes into account organisms from all five Kingdoms of life.

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Acknowledgments

I thank Prof. J. Jost (MPI Mathematics in the Sciences, Leipzig, Germany) for helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript and the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung (Bonn, Germany) for financial support (AvH-fellowship 2007/Stanford, California, USA).

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  1. Institute of Biology, University of Kassel, Heinrich-Plett-Strasse 40, 34109, Kassel, Germany

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Kutschera, U. Symbiogenesis, natural selection, and the dynamic Earth. Theory Biosci. 128, 191–203 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12064-009-0065-0

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