Draft:Axel Lange

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Axel Lange
Born (1955-01-29) January 29, 1955 (age 69)
Laufenburg, Germany
Known forEvoDevo, Extended Evolutionary Synthesis
Scientific career
FieldsEvoDevo, evolutionary theory, biocultural evolution
InstitutionsUniversity of Vienna

Axel Lange (born 1955) is a German evolutionary biologist and book author. He researches on open evolutionary developmental biology questions and has published German and English monographs on the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis.

Life[edit]

Lange studied economics and philosophy at the University of Freiburg, after which he held various management positions in the IT industry. From 2010 to 2018 he studied evolutionary biology at the University of Vienna and completed a PhD with honors in 2018 at the Department of Theoretical Biology under Gerd B. Müller.[1][2]

Scientific contribution[edit]

A polydactyl kitten
Biased number of polydactylous toes in a Main Coon population
Biased number of polydactylous toes in a Main Coon population

Lange dealt with the PhD thesis "Evodevo mechanisms of polydactyly formation".[1] His work demonstrated that the number of additional toes in a population of 317 polydactyl Maine Coon cats is developmentally biased and follow different probabilities (figure). The connection between small cellular changes (bistable random switches) and the formation of new toes was shown in the "Hemingway model".[3] Whereas polydactyly can be initiated by genetic mutation, only the consideration of the constructive behaviors of the developmental system in which a genetic change becomes effective can adequatelely explain the biased phenotypic outcomes.[3]

A Turing based reaction-diffusion system simulates with thresholds how small cellular changes in digit formation during early limb development as a result of a point mutation for polydactyly lead to the development of different numbers of toes in the phenotype.[4] Predictions of threshold behaviors in the cell groupings coincide closely with the thresholds observed in the polydactyly occurrences seen in the natural population.[4]

Another study analyzes the knowledge about polydactyly from antiquity through the Middle Ages to molecular genetics and epigenetic evo-devo research in this day and age. Lange and Müller focus on conceptual issues polydactyly has raised in contributions it has made to the theories of developmental biology, in the study of inheritance, and in evolutionary contexts.[5]

Oldest illustration in Europe of a symmetrical polydactyl animal, here a chicken with 5 toes on both feet from Bartolomeo Ambrosini (1642)

Contribution to the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis[edit]

The main contributions of Lange's work to the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES) in contrast to the standard evolutionary theory, the Modern synthesis (20th century) are:

  • A complex phenotypic characteristic like the number of fingers and toes in vertebrates is not determined at the genetic level as has always been taught for all phenotypic variation, but can only be causally explained at the level of cells, their behaviour and their communication during limb development (bistable random switches and thresholds).[3][4]
  • The number of supernumerary toes is not equally distributed as conventional evolutionary theory would assume. Rather, embryonal development forms a bias in the direction of higher probabilities for every two additional toes per individual. Synthetic theory does not recognise such a bias as it completely ignores developmental processes.[3]
  • The theory of evolution is enriched by the possibility of being able to react more quickly via thresholds than is the case with the classical, limited view of small additive steps of mutation, selection and adaptation (gradualism). Threshold based variation in development is seen as a core mechanism of rapid response to selectional, mutational, or environmental perturbation.[4]
  • The role of discontinuous variation in phenotypic evolution and the contribution of developmental effects to the emergence of phenotypic novelty are demonstrated and supported.[3][4]
  • Models simulate how complete anatomical entities such as additional or fewer fingers and toes can be added (or lost) in a single step from one generation to the next.[4]
  • Evolutionary dispositions can arise from the way development shapes variation and acts before selection. This means, that the repeated and permanent ‘orchestration’ by natural selection required by modern synthesis for the emergence of complex variation is put into perspective.[3][4]

Reception[edit]

Scientific papers[edit]

Polydactyly not only represents an informative case in the study of developmental principles, but it also highlights the necessity for an extended theory of evolution that can account for both continuous and discontinuous forms of phenotypic variation. In this way Lange's evo-devo-contributions provide important content on the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES), in particular on discontinuous variation, developmental bias, and the genotype-phenotype relationship.[6][7][8][9][10][11][12]

In their fundamental paper on the structurs, assumptions and predictions of the EES in Proceedings of the Royal Society Ser. B by Kevin Lala and collegues Lange's work on developmental bias is seen as a contribution to the introduction of bias into post-modern evolutionary theory: "Bias is manifest, for example, in the non random numbers of limbs, digits, segments and vertebrae across a variety of taxa".[6] Denis Noble, Eva Jablonka and and collegues mention the importance of gene-maturing multilevel systems in development and emphasise, with reference to Lange's work, that such systems "produce threshold effects that influence the phenotypic outcome".[7] Gerd B. Müller draws attention to the special significance of threshold effects, which Lange and collegues have worked out in the context of the EES.[10] As Stuart Newman and colleagues point out, Lange's model is one of the first to "demonstrate that Turing-type self-organization can occur even in the absence of diffusible activators and inhibitors".[13] With regard to Lange's Turing model, it is emphasised that models such as his „serve for exploring the way in which different genotypic and environmental inputs map into phenotypic variation within and across populations“.[14]

Critical book reviews[edit]

Lange's book "Extending the Evolutionary Synthesis",[2] published by Taylor & Francis in 2023, provides an "excellent overview of a large part of today’s theorizing in evolutionary biology".[15] James A. Shapiro noted of Lange's book [16] it "is enlarging our ideas about this most fundamental of biological processes". Scott F. Gilbert comments that the book "provides an appreciation of the natural world and the origins of biodiversity that will enrich the lives of any reader".[16] John Endler describes the book "as a broad, balanced and useful review of new directions in Evolutionary Biology".[16]

Lange's book on the EES is the first monograph to give an overall impression of the state of the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis and it's contributors, including Eva Jablonka, Gerd B. Müller, Denis Noble, Armin Moczek, Mary Jane West-Eberhard, James A. Shapiro, Sean B. Carroll, Marc Kirschner, John Odling-Smee, Kevin Lala, David Sloan Wilson, and others, some of whom have been interviewed by the author in his book about their contributions to the extended synthesis.

Publications[edit]

Books[edit]

  • Axel Lange (2024) Evolutionstheorie im Wandel: Ist Darwin überholt? Springer (2nd updated ed.)
  • Axel Lange (2023) Extending the Evolutionary Synthesis: Darwin’s Legacy Redesigned. CRC Press (English ed. of Lange 2020)
  • Axel Lange (2021) Von künstlicher Biologie zu künstlicher Intelligenz - und dann? - Die Zukunft unserer Evolution. Springer
  • Axel Lange (2020) Evolutionstheorie im Wandel: Ist Darwin überholt? Springer
  • Axel Lange (2012) Darwins Erbe im Umbau - Die Säulen der Erweiterten Synthese in der Evolutionstheorie. Königshausen & Neumann

Articles[edit]

  • Brigitte Balink, Axel Lange (2021) Mediation im Lichte moderner Evolutionstheorie. Perspektive Mediation 2021 (3), 204-211. https://doi.org/10.33196/pm202103020401
  • Axel Lange, Hans Leo Nemeschkal, Gerd B. Müller (2018) A threshold model for polydactyly. Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology 137, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2018.04.007
  • Axel Lange, Gerd B. Müller (2017) Polydactyly in Development, Inheritance, and Evolution. The Quarterly Review of Biology 92 (1), 1-28, 34, 2017. doi: 10.1086/690841
  • Axel Lange, Hans Leo Nemeschkal, Gerd B. Müller (2014) Biased polyphenism in polydactylous cats carrying a single point mutation: The Hemingway model for of digit novelty. Evolutionary Biology, 41 (2), 262-275, 29, 2014. doi:10.1007/s11692-013-9267-y

External links[edit]

• Axel Lange The Third Way of Evolution

• Axel Lange Google Scholar

• Die Rätsel des sechsten Fingers (The riddles of the sixth finger). DERSTANDARD, Wien)

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Axel Lange (2018): Evodevo mechanisms of polydactyly formation
  2. ^ a b Axel Lange (2023) Extending the Evolutionary Synthesis: Darwin’s Legacy Redesigned. CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003341413
  3. ^ a b c d e f Axel Lange, Hans Leo Nemeschkal, Gerd B. Müller (2014) Biased polyphenism in polydactylous cats carrying a single point mutation: the Hemingway model for of digit novelty. Evolutionary Biology, 41 (2), 262-275, 29, 2014 doi:10.1007/s11692-013-9267-y
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Axel Lange, Hans Leo Nemeschkal, Gerd B. Müller (2018) A threshold model for polydactyly. Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology 137, 1-11 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2018.04.007
  5. ^ Axel Lange, Gerd B. Müller (2017) Polydactyly in Development, Inheritance, and Evolution. The Quarterly Review of Biology 92 (1), 1-28, 34, 2017 doi: 10.1086/690841
  6. ^ a b Laland KN, Uller T, Feldman MW, Sterelny K, Müller GB, Moczek A, Jablonka E, Odling-Smee J. 2015. The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis: Its structure, assumptions and predictions. Proc Biol Sci 282. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2015.1019
  7. ^ a b Denis Noble, Eva Jablonka, Michael J Joyner, Gerd B Müller, and Stig W Omholt (2014) Evolution evolves: physiology returns to centre stage. J Physiol. 2014 Jun 1; 592(Pt 11): 2237–2244. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.2014.273151
  8. ^ John J. Welsh (2023) The Creativity of Natural Selection and the Creativity of Organisms: Their Roles in Traditional Evolutionary Theory and Some Proposed Extensions. In: Thomas E. Dickins, Benjamin J. A: Dickins ( eds.): Evolutionary Biology: Contemporary and Historical Reflections Upon Core Theory. Springer
  9. ^ Paul G. Layer (2022) Post-genomics, Evo-Devo and the recurrence of teleologic thought. BioCosmos · May 2022 doi: 10.2478/biocosmos-2022-0002
  10. ^ a b Gerd B. Müller (2017) Why an extended evolutionary synthesis is necessary. Interface Focus7(5): 20170015 doi: 10.1098/rsfs.2017.0015
  11. ^ Jan Baedtke (2021) The Origin of New Levels of Organization. doi: 10.7551/mitpress/12389.003.0012. In book: Levels of Organization in the Biological Sciences. MIT Press
  12. ^ Cristina Villegas and Vanessa Trivino (2023) Tipología y disposiciones del organismo en la evo-devo: una aproximación metafísica Typology and Organismal Dispositions in Evo-Devo: A Metaphysical Approach. ArtefaCToS. Revista de estudios de la ciencia y la tecnología eISSN: 1989-3612 Vol. 12, No. 1 (2023), 2.ª Época, 79-102 DOI: https://doi.org/10.14201/art202312179102
  13. ^ Stuart A. Newman, Ramray Bhat (2021) Spatial and temporal waves in vertebrate limb development. Biosystems 208 (Suppl. 7) 104502 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystems.2021.104502
  14. ^ Cristina Villegas (2024) Variational propensities: development and ultimate causes. Synthese 203(5). http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11229-024-04576-1
  15. ^ Lennnart Olsson (2021) Evolutionstheorie im Umbau. Ist Darwin überholt? Acta Zoologica. 2021;00:1–3. doi: 10.1111/azo.12414 (English review of the German edition of: Extending the Evolutionary Synthesis)
  16. ^ a b c Axel Lange (2023) Extending the Evolutionary Synthesis: Darwin’s Legacy Redesigned. CRC Press. https://www.routledge.com/Extending-the-Evolutionary-Synthesis-Darwins-Legacy-Redesigned/Lange/p/book/9781032376899 (Critic's Reviews)


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