Epigenetic processes and the evolution of life

The book covers the possible story of emergence of life and its subsequent evolution, emphasizing the necessary evolutionary step negotiation of a common "language set" which kept all inhabitants in the biosphere together, ensuring a basic level of understanding among them. The book focuses on "protocols of communication" (both genetic and epigenetic) representing norms shared and understood across the whole biosphere, enabling a plethora of holobiotic relationships. Cooperative nature of organismal evolution and epigenetic processes as a major force in evolution are also covered. Topics discussed are illustrated in detail on selected casuistics.

"A Science Publishers book."

Preface; 1: Transgressing the Norms; 2: The Manifold of Prebiotic Evolution; Preconditions; Metabolism First; 'Replicators'-Code First; 3: Life from Nonlife: Establishing Rules and Codes; Proteins; 'Universal Cell'; Life Is ... ; Pillars and Itinerary of the Biosphere; Biospheric Games; 4: Towards a New Manifold: The Biosphere; Dating Life's Appearance; Origins: Biosphere LUCA; Reconstructing the Past, Making Sense of the Present; 5: Concepts of Heredity and Theories of Evolution; Descent with Modification; J.B. Lamarck; After Lamarck: Organic MemoryExperimental Embryology; Units of Heredity; Modern Synthesis; The Age of DNA; Evolutionary Developmental Biology; The Rise of Epigenetics; Extended Evolutionary Synthesis; Philosophical Approaches; Philosophical Turnoff on Causality; Evolution as History; 6: New Dimensions of Diversity; On Digital; Shaping DNA; Proteins; The Hairball; Targeted Epimutations; Combing the Shapes of Nucleic Acids; Protein Modularity; Unrooted in the Norm yet Faithful to It; 7: Information Boom; Quorum Sensing; Signal Transduction; Chance, Necessity, and Gratuity; Processing and RespondingSimplexity; 8: Morphogenesis; The Tradition of the New; Multicellular…