Open AccessJournal Article
What is an organism? An immunological answer
TLDR
It is shown that one physiological field, immunology, offers a theory that makes possible a biological individuation based on physiological grounds.Abstract:
The question “What is an organism?”, formerly considered as essential in biology, has now been increasingly replaced by a larger question, “What is a biological individual?”. On the grounds that i) individuation is theory-dependent, and ii) physiology does not offer a theory, biologists and philosophers of biology have claimed that it is the theory of evolution by natural selection which tells us what counts as a biological individual. Here I show that one physiological field, immunology, offers a theory, which makes possible a biological individuation based on physiological grounds. I give a new answer to the question of the individuation of an organism by linking together the evolutionary and the immunological approaches to biological individuation.read more
Citations
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A symbiotic view of life: we have never been individuals.
TL;DR: Recognizing the “holobiont”—the multicellular eukaryote plus its colonies of persistent symbionts—as a critically important unit of anatomy, development, physiology, immunology, and evolution opens up new investigative avenues and conceptually challenges the ways in which the biological subdisciplines have heretofore characterized living entities.
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The Problem of Biological Individuality
TL;DR: There is a real problem of biological individuality, and an urgent need to arbitrate among the current plethora of solutions to it.
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Holobionts and the ecology of organisms: Multi-species communities or integrated individuals?
TL;DR: It is argued that most holobionts share more affinities with communities than they do with organisms, and that, except for maybe in rare cases, holobonts do not meet the criteria for being organisms, evolutionary individuals, or units of selection.
Journal ArticleDOI
Organisms or biological individuals? Combining physiological and evolutionary individuality
TL;DR: It is suggested that the combination of an evolutionary and a physiological perspective will enable biologists and philosophers to supply an account of biological individuality that will be both more comprehensive and more in accordance with scientific practices.
Journal ArticleDOI
Immunological memory: What's in a name?
Thomas Pradeu,Louis Du Pasquier +1 more
TL;DR: It is argued that immunological memory is a gradual and multidimensional phenomenon, irreducible to any simple dichotomy, and it is shown why adopting this new view matters from an experimental and therapeutic point of view.
References
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CRISPR provides acquired resistance against viruses in prokaryotes
Rodolphe Barrangou,Christophe Fremaux,Hélène Deveau,Melissa Richards,Patrick Boyaval,Sylvain Moineau,Dennis A. Romero,Philippe Horvath +7 more
TL;DR: It is found that, after viral challenge, bacteria integrated new spacers derived from phage genomic sequences, and CRISPR provided resistance against phages, and resistance specificity is determined by spacer-phage sequence similarity.
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Cancer immunoediting: from immunosurveillance to tumor escape.
TL;DR: The historical and experimental basis of cancer immunoediting is summarized and its dual roles in promoting host protection against cancer and facilitating tumor escape from immune destruction are discussed.
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Mycorrhizal fungal diversity determines plant biodiversity, ecosystem variability and productivity
Marcel G. A. van der Heijden,John N. Klironomos,Margot Ursic,Peter Moutoglis,R. Streitwolf-Engel,Thomas Boller,Andres Wiemken,Ian R. Sanders +7 more
TL;DR: It is shown that below-ground diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) is a major factor contributing to the maintenance of plant biodiversity and to ecosystem functioning, and that microbial interactions can drive ecosystem functions such as plant biodiversity, productivity and variability.
Book
The Structure of Evolutionary Theory
TL;DR: Defining and Revising the Structure of Evolutionary Theory and the Integration of Constraint and Adaptation in Ontogeny and Phylogeny: Historical Constraints and the Evolution of Development.
Journal ArticleDOI
The gut flora as a forgotten organ
Ann M O'Hara,Fergus Shanahan +1 more
TL;DR: The flora has a collective metabolic activity equal to a virtual organ within an organ, and the mechanisms underlying the conditioning influence of the bacteria on mucosal homeostasis and immune responses are beginning to be unravelled.