Coévolution

see also: Etymology of Coévolution

In Biology, the term coévolution indicates the transformations which occur during the evolution of two Espèce S alive following their reciprocal influences.

The phenomenon of coévolution is often observed in the relations between the Parasite S and their hosts where it is about competitive coévolution , but there also exists of many cases of co-operative coévolution , for example in the durable cases of interactions possibly evolving to the Symbiose between two species. In addition to the ecological Selection, the sexual Sélection can it also lead to an intraspecific coévolution but since bringing into play the male individuals and the individuals females within the same species. This phenomenon is observed in particular in the reproductive strategies and against-strategies implemented by each Sexe during the Accouplement but also in the pre phases and post-copulatoire in order to make sure control of the Fertilization.

The coévolution was especially studied through the duelles relations of types Prédateur - Proie, Hôte - Parasite or Symbiose but the coévolution can also relate to associations of several species (many parasites have three successive hosts, even more). Contemporary work of research in Biologie of the evolution in particular aims at determining the role and the importance of the coévolution in the evolutionary history of the species in order to know if it is a truly fundamental or rather anecdotic mechanism.

Examples of coévolutions

Angiosperme S Insect S in connection with the Pollination.
Angiospermes - Animal in connection with the Zoochorie or dissemination of seeds.
always It is not a question for a species to be defended against another, and it is not certain that a adaptive Avantage obvious is always in question. Thus, of the Orchidée S of Madagascar have Co-advanced with their pollinating butterflies by developing tubes increasingly long Nectar ifères (30 cm length) whereas the butterflies developed Trompe S of 25 cm.

The coévolution gene-culture

With the whole beginning of the Years 1980, the sociobiologists Charles J. Lumsden and Edward O. Wilson proposed in a work entitled Genoa, Mind and Culture: The Coevolutionary Process that the cultural phenomena were to be integrated in the study of the human evolution. For these authors, the cultural transmission is strongly influenced by the natural of the human Esprit and reciprocally, a milked cultural can support genetic evolution via the stabilization of certain genes which give a selective Avantage in the group where this cultural behavior is observed.

At the time the concept of a coévolution gene-culture is not however completely new since as of 1971, the Anthropologue Claude Levi-Strauss invited to a “ positive collaboration between Généticien S and Ethnologue S, to seek together how and how the distribution cards of the biological phenomena and the cultural phenomena light mutually”. But as well the Biologiste S as the researchers in Social sciences remained reticent to consider this assumption seriously. It is only starting from the Années 1990 that it will find a broader echo in particular thanks to the work undertaken in evolutionary Psychologie.

According to these theories, the process of coévolution gene-culture thus continues still today within the mankind. Claude Combes, specialist French in the coévolution notes that the Humanité indeed introduces new processes into the play of the coévolution while having removed its Prédateur S, in domesticating or deteriorating the lifestyles of many species which surround it, while acting on the Climat of planet, on the Paysage S. the consequences of the human activity which results from a transgénérationnelle culture including of the medical knowledge , Vétérinaire S and Technique S (Clonage, genetic Engineering,…) are thus to move away more and more the man from the processes of the Natural selection.

Coévolution gene-culture in the animal kingdom

Even if the assumption of a coévolution gene-culture were often developed within the mankind, of recent work of genetics and ethology a process similar highlighted to work in certain Cetacea (Cachalot, Orque, Globicéphale). Indeed, in these species, of the cultural traditions were observed, in particular concerning the mode food or the voice communication. The result of these cultural divergences within these species of which the social structure is Matrilinéaire is a very important reduction of the genetic diversity of DNA mitochondrial.

See too

External bonds

Web-conference of Claudes Combes on the coévolution and the Man

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