What Is a Hologenomic Adaptation? Emergent Individuality and Inter-Identity in Multispecies Systems

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Javier Suárez¹  Vanessa Triviño³ 

[1] Department of Philosophy, University of Barcelona;The Centre for the Study of Life Sciences, Department of Sociology, University of Exeter, United Kingdom;Department of History of Science, Rey Juan Carlos University

关键词: holobiont;    hologenome;    microbiome;    biological individuality;    adaptation;    emergence;    inter-identity;    metaphysics of biology;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00187

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Contemporary biological research has suggested that some host–microbiome multispecies systems (referred to as “holobionts”) can in certain circumstances evolve as unique biological individual, thus being a unit of selection in evolution. If this is so, then it is arguably the case that some biological adaptations have evolved at the level of the multispecies system, what we call hologenomic adaptations . However, no research has yet been devoted to investigating their nature, or how these adaptations can be distinguished from adaptations at the species-level (genomic adaptations). In this paper, we cover this gap by investigating the nature of hologenomic adaptations. By drawing on the case of the evolution of sanguivory diet in vampire bats, we argue that a trait constitutes a hologenomic adaptation when its evolution can only be explained if the holobiont is considered the biological individual that manifests this adaptation, while the bacterial taxa that bear the trait are only opportunistic beneficiaries of it. We then use the philosophical notions of emergence and inter-identity to explain the nature of this form of individuality and argue why it is special of holobionts. Overall, our paper illustrates how the use of philosophical concepts can illuminate scientific discussions, in the trend of what has recently been called metaphysics of biology.

【 授权许可】

CC BY