Symbiogenesis: A New Principle of Evolution

by Boris Mikhaylovich Kozo-Polyansky, Lynn Margulis, Peter H. Raven

Overview

More than eighty years ago, before we knew much about the structure of cells, Russian botanist Boris Kozo-Polyansky brilliantly outlined the concept of symbiogenesis, the symbiotic origin of cells with nuclei. It was a half-century later, only when experimental approaches that Kozo-Polyansky lacked were applied to his hypotheses, that scientists began to accept his view that symbiogenesis could be united with Darwin's concept of natural selection to explain the evolution of life. After decades of neglect, ridicule, and intellectual abuse, Kozo-Polyansky's ideas are now endorsed by virtually all biologists.

Kozo-Polyansky's seminal work is presented here for the first time in an outstanding annotated translation, updated with commentaries, references, and modern micrographs of symbiotic phenomena.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674050457
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	06/15/2010
Pages:	198
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Boris Mikhaylovich Kozo-Polyansky (1890–1957) graduated from Moscow University and in 1918 joined a Soviet university in his native Voronezh where he became a vice-president as well as director of the local botanical garden.

Victor Fet is Professor of Biology at Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia.

Lynn Margulis was Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst.

Peter H. Raven is George Engelmann Professor Emeritus of Botany, Washington University in St. Louis, and President Emeritus of the Missouri Botanical Garden.

Table of Contents

The Importance of B. M. Kozo-Polyansky's Work for Modern Science Liya N. Khakhina xi

Introduction Peter H. Raven xiii

Note to the Reader Lynn Margulis xxi

Kozo-Polyansky's Life Victor Fet xxiii

Acknowledgments xxxiii

Original Russian book title xxxviii

Modern status of Kozo-Polyansky's view of the net of life: Symbiogenesis refined by Darwin-Wallace "natural selection" xxxix

Preface 1

I Noncellular Organisms (Cytodes) and Bioblasts [Prokaryotes] 3

1 Bacterial Bioblasts 3

2 Cyanophyceae, or Blue-Green Algal Bioblasts 6

3 Symbiosis among Cytodes 9

4 Symbiosis of Cytodes with Unicellular Organisms [Protoctists] 14

5 Symbiosis of Cytodes with Multicellular Organisms [Animals, Plants, Fungi] 16

6 Cytodes [Prokaryotes] as Ancestors 17

II The Cell and Its Organelles 19

1 Chlorophyll Organelles and Other Plastids 19

a Chlorophyll Organelles in Animals [and Protoctists] 20

b Chlorophyll Organelles in Plants [and Protoctists] 25

2 Centrosomes 31

3 Nuclei 32

4 Mitochondria 39

5 Ergastoplasm [Endoplasmic Reticulum] 44

6 Golgi Apparatus 44

7 Nerve Fibrils of Nemec 46

8 Physodes [of Brown Algae] 46

9 Myofibrils (Contractile Fibers) 47

10 Blepharoplasts [Cytoplasmic Bodies That Bear an Undulipodium] 47

11 Elaioplasts [Oil Bodies in Monocots] 48

12 Aleurone [Proteinaceous Granules of Seeds] 49

13 Cytoplasm [Liquid Homogeneous Substance That Contains Once-Autonomous Organisms] 50

III Multicellular Organisms 54

A First Series of Examples 54

1 Lichens 54

2 Plants [Successful Grafts] 58

3 Animals [Chimeras and Graft Hybrids] 62

4 Consortia of Sponges with Algae 64

B Second Series of Examples [Plants] 66

1 Mucous Glands in Aquatic Ferns (Azolla) and Hornworts 66

2 Stem Glands of Gunnera 68

3 Leaf Glands of Plants 70

4 Coralloid Organs of Cycads 71

5 Mycorrhiza, Plant-Fungal Roots 73

6 Orchids: Roots, Tubers, and Flowers 74

7 Heathers and Their Roots 77

8 Toxic Glands of Lolium temulentum 78

C Third Series of Examples [Animals] 79

1 Algal Pubescence in Dragonfly Larvae 80

2 Glandular Epithelium in Ant Midguts 80

3 The Racemose Organ and Vaginal Glands of Beetles 81

4 False Yolk (Pseudovitellus) in Aphids 82

5 Cicadas: Their Abdominal Organs 84

6 Lice: Their Hepatopancreas and Oviduct Ampullae 84

7 Ticks: Their Digestive Glands 85

8 Esophageal Glands of Leeches 86

9 Lepidoptera: Accessory Glands of Their Reproductive Organs 87

10 Bedbugs: Their Paired Glands 89

11 Beetles' Light Organs 91

12 Cyclostoma elegans, "Storage Kidney" (Mollusca) 94

13 Tunicate: Its Bojanus Organ [Renal Sac] 94

14 Luminescence in Tunicates: Pyrosoma 95

15 Cephalopod Nidamental Glands and Light Organs 97

16 Blood Platelets (Hematoblasts) in Mammals 101

D Other Tissues and Organs 102

IV The Philosophy of Symbiogenesis 108

1 The [Nucleated] Cell 108

2 Organisms as Consortia 109

3 Inherited Variation 110

4 Heredity 113

5 Natural Selection and the Struggle for Existence 114

6 Symbiogenesis as Evidence for Evolution 115

7 "Missing Links" 116

8 Genealogical Relations: [Anastomoses of Family Tree Branches] 117

9 Issues in Evolution 117

10 A Program for Biology 119

V History of Symbiogenesis Theory 121

References to Kozo-Polyansky's Text 129

Kozo-Polyansky's Taxa 145

Editors' Commentary 151

Commentary References 163

Modern Classification of Life (Most Inclusive "Higher" Taxa) 175

Glossary 181

Index 191

What People are Saying About This

Armen Takhtajan

The differences between prokaryotes and eukaryotes are much more deep and fundamental than, for example, those between higher animals and higher plants. Numerous facts, especially those from cytology of simplest eukaryotic organisms, support the views of Kozo-Polyansky—Margulis. The eukaryotic cell, compared to a prokaryotic cell, is already rather some sort of "supercell." A specific "assembly" of a complex eukaryotic system from already largely "prefabricated parts" took place during the process of evolution.
— Armen Takhtajan, Komarov Botanical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences

William Provine

How could this book not have been a part of evolutionary biology since its publication in 1924? …What a difference it would have in the "evolutionary synthesis" if this book were easily in the hands of biologists in German or English translation!
— William Provine, Cornell University

Editorial Reviews

How could this book not have been a part of evolutionary biology since its publication in 1924? …What a difference it would have in the "evolutionary synthesis" if this book were easily in the hands of biologists in German or English translation!

William Provine

The differences between prokaryotes and eukaryotes are much more deep and fundamental than, for example, those between higher animals and higher plants. Numerous facts, especially those from cytology of simplest eukaryotic organisms, support the views of Kozo-Polyansky—Margulis. The eukaryotic cell, compared to a prokaryotic cell, is already rather some sort of "supercell." A specific "assembly" of a complex eukaryotic system from already largely "prefabricated parts" took place during the process of evolution.

Armen Takhtajan

Aiming to acquaint readers with the history of symbiogenesis theory, this excellent book accomplishes more than a mere presentation of a translated work originally written in the 1920s. Margulis and Fet have brought forth a gem of evolutionary thinking, essentially lost because it was published in Russian, which shows how the development of modern symbiogenesis theory (particularly that of Margulis) was anticipated (and would have been greatly aided) by the late botanist Kozo-Polyansky's work. It is a commendable piece of scholarship to present a publication that, in many ways, "scoops" the authors' own contributions to the field, if only in retrospect. Fet and Margulis, however, not only revive the book, they bring it fully into the sweep of modern theory by clearly and succinctly translating the original terms into their modern equivalents and correcting for the reader the statements by Kozo-Polyansky that have not held up over the intervening 85-plus years. Their insertions into the text are clearly marked and succinct, and do not detract from the original. Indeed, the book is as much a summary of the way science self-corrects and refines itself as it is a presentation of Kozo-Polyansky's work.

Choice - S. J. Oliver

Aiming to acquaint readers with the history of symbiogenesis theory, this excellent book accomplishes more than a mere presentation of a translated work originally written in the 1920s. Margulis and Fet have brought forth a gem of evolutionary thinking, essentially lost because it was published in Russian, which shows how the development of modern symbiogenesis theory (particularly that of Margulis) was anticipated (and would have been greatly aided) by the late botanist Kozo-Polyansky's work. It is a commendable piece of scholarship to present a publication that, in many ways, "scoops" the authors' own contributions to the field, if only in retrospect. Fet and Margulis, however, not only revive the book, they bring it fully into the sweep of modern theory by clearly and succinctly translating the original terms into their modern equivalents and correcting for the reader the statements by Kozo-Polyansky that have not held up over the intervening 85-plus years. Their insertions into the text are clearly marked and succinct, and do not detract from the original. Indeed, the book is as much a summary of the way science self-corrects and refines itself as it is a presentation of Kozo-Polyansky's work.
— S. J. Oliver

Choice