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"SYMBIOSIS has been critically important in macroevolutionary innovation. eukaryotic cells are themselves the result of several symbioses." https://lnkd.in/ddVyNR5 View in LinkedIn

BOLTING ON. "Negotiated surveillance is a general mechanism that has evolved to permit the incorporation of potentially self-replicating parts into coherent wholes. We see this, as Lynn Margulis long predicted we would, in the main transitions in evolution." https://lnkd.in/ddVyNR5 View in LinkedIn

GROUP VALUES WIN. "Alleles can spread throughout a population because of the benefits they bestow on groups, irrespective of the alleles' effect on the fitness of individuals within that group." https://lnkd.in/ddVyNR5 View in LinkedIn

MOLECULAR BEHAVIOR. "We describe the initial realization of behavior in the biosphere, which we term behavioral chemistry. If molecules are complex enough to attain a stochastic element to their structural conformation in such as a way as to radically affect their function in a biological (evolvable) setting, then they have the capacity to behave." https://lnkd.in/ddnX_69 View in LinkedIn

HIGHER LEVEL SELECTION. "Can it be that organisms are selected as multigenomic associations? Is the fittest in life's struggle the multispecies group, and not an individual of a single species in that group?" https://lnkd.in/ddVyNR5 View in LinkedIn

ORGANISMS AT THE EDGE OF LIFE is a favorite topic of mine, because they challenge our assumptions. These include the definitions of life itself, and of the species. If we are exploring the universe for other life forms, it seems that we must revise some quaint thinking on both topics. I also call this theme the Grey Zone. This is especially exemplified by viruses and mobile genetic elements. View in LinkedIn

ORGANISMS AS COMPLEXES. "It is evident that organisms are anatomically, physiologically, developmentally, genetically, and immunologically multigenomic and multispecies complexes." https://lnkd.in/ddVyNR5 View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this fragment on biological individuality. It is clear that an increasing number of life scientists believe that individuality is a mirage. We are already painfully aware that a scorched-earth policy with antibiotics is a failed concept, and that calling a large and diverse group of microorganisms 'germs' is becoming, slowly, a thing of the past. Already, the microbiome project is illuminating new drugs, not made of molecules, but of living things. We are embarking on a new age. View in LinkedIn

PLANT PATHOGEN IMMUNITY. "In plants, endophytes, the diverse and widespread fungi that live out most of their life cycle in plant tissue, provide enhanced pathogen immunity to their host; they can also ward off herbivores, among other benefits. Thus, immune systems are created, in part, by microbial symbionts." https://lnkd.in/ddVyNR5 View in LinkedIn

LIFE-VIEW. "We are all lichens." (Fungal plus algae hybrid creatures). https://lnkd.in/ddVyNR5 View in LinkedIn