Sinauer Associates announces a new book:


Ecological Developmental Biology: Integrating Epigenetics, Medicine, and Evolution
Scott F. Gilbert and David Epel

December 2008
450 (est.) pages, 178 (est.) illustrations
paper

About This Title

When the molecular processes of epigenetics meet the ecological processes of
phenotypic plasticity, the result is a revolutionary new field: ecological
developmental biology, or “eco-devo.” This new science studies development in
the “real world” of predators, pathogens, competitors, symbionts, toxic
compounds, temperature changes, and nutritional differences. These environmental
agents can result in changes to an individual’s phenotype, often implemented
when signals from the environment elicit epigenetic changes in gene expression.
Ecological developmental biology is a truly integrative biology, detailing the
interactions between developing organisms and their environmental contexts.

Ecological developmental biology also provides a systems approach to the study
of pathology, integrating the studies of diabetes, cancers, obesity, and the
aging syndrome into the framework of an ecologically sensitive developmental
biology. It looks at examples where the environment provides expected cues for
normal development and where the organism develops improperly without such cues.
Data from research on teratology, endocrine disruptors, and microbial symbioses,
when integrated into a developmental context, may have enormous implications for
human health as well as the overall health of Earth’s ecosystems.

The study of epigenetics—changes in gene expression that are not the result of
changes in a gene’s DNA sequence—has recently provided startling insights not
only into mechanisms of development, but also into the mechanisms and processes
of evolution. The notion that epialleles (changes in chromosome structure that
alter gene expression) can be induced by environmental agents and transmitted
across generations has altered our notions of evolution, as have new experiments
documenting the genetic fixation of environmentally induced changes in
development. The widespread use of symbiosis in development provides new targets
for natural selection. Ecological developmental biology integrates these new
ideas into an extended evolutionary synthesis that retains and enriches the
notion of evolution by natural selection.

About the Authors

Scott F. Gilbert, the Howard A. Schneiderman Professor of Biology at Swarthmore
College, teaches developmental biology, developmental genetics, and the history
of biology. After receiving his B.A. from Wesleyan University, he pursued his
graduate and postdoctoral research at The Johns Hopkins University and the
University of Wisconsin. Dr. Gilbert is the recipient of several awards,
including the first Viktor Hamburger Award for excellence in developmental
biology education, the 2004 Alexander Kowalevsky Prize for evolutionary
developmental biology, an honorary degree from the University of Helsinki, and
the Medal of François I from the Collège de France. He is a Fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a corresponding member
of the St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists. His research is sponsored by the
National Science Foundation and involves the developmental genetic mechanisms by
which the turtle forms its shell.

David Epel, the Jane and Marshall Steel Jr. Professor of Biological Sciences at
Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station, did his undergraduate studies at
Wayne University and then graduate and postdoctoral studies at the University of
California, Berkeley and the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Epel has been a
Guggenheim Fellow, is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement
of Science, the California Academy of Sciences, and an Overseas Fellow of
Churchill College and Life Fellow of Clare Hall at the University of Cambridge.
His honors include the Cox Medal for Fostering Undergraduate Research at
Stanford and the Ed Ricketts Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement in the
Marine Sciences. Epel’s research focuses on the activation of the egg at
fertilization, the unique physiology of the embryo, and developing web sites and
curricula highlighting early development of the sea urchin embryo to capture the
imagination and interest of high school students. 

For further information, see:  http://www.sinauer.com/detail.php?id=2993

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