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Manfred D Laubichler

Publications and source records attributed to Manfred D Laubichler.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2004

Alfred Kühn (1885-1968) and developmental evolution.

Alfred Kühn (1885-1968) was known as one of the most comprehensive zoologists of his time. His research program in developmental physiological genetics was one of the first successful attempts to integrate the experimental study of development and heredity. It led him to discover the first known reaction chain from gene to phenotype. Kühn also foresaw many elements of modern evolutionary developmental biology and as a student of Weismann and mentor to many developmental geneticists of the late 20th century directly connects Weismann with molecular developmental genetics.

Biological Evolution↗
PubMed2004

Rupert Riedl and the re-synthesis of evolutionary and developmental biology: body plans and evolvability.

This paper reviews the scientific career of Rupert Riedl and his contributions to evolutionary biology. Rupert Riedl, a native of Vienna, Austria, began his career as a marine biologist who made important contributions to the systematics and anatomy of major invertebrate groups, as well as to marine ecology. When he assumed a professorship at the University of North Carolina in 1968, the predominant thinking in evolutionary biology focused on population genetics, to the virtual exclusion of most of the rest of biology. In this atmosphere Riedl developed his "systems theory" of evolution, which emphasizes the role of functional and developmental integration in limiting and enabling adaptive evolution by natural selection. The main objective of this theory is to account for the observed patterns of morphological evolution, such as the conservation of body plans. In contrast to other "alternative" theories of evolution, Riedl never denied the importance of natural selection as the driving force of evolution, but thought it necessary to contextualize natural selection with the organismal boundary conditions of adaptation. In Riedl's view development is the most important factor besides natural selection in shaping the pattern and processes of morphological evolution.

Adaptation, Biological↗
PubMed2004

Decomposing multilocus linkage disequilibrium.

We present a mathematically precise formulation of total linkage disequilibrium between multiple loci as the deviation from probabilistic independence and provide explicit formulas for all higher-order terms of linkage disequilibrium, thereby combining J. Dausset et al.'s 1978 definition of linkage disequilibrium with H. Geiringer's 1944 approach. We recursively decompose higher-order linkage disequilibrium terms into lower-order ones. Our greatest simplification comes from defining linkage disequilibrium at a single locus as allele frequency at that locus. At each level, decomposition of linkage disequilibrium is mathematically equivalent to number theoretic compositions of positive integers; i.e., we have converted a genetic decomposition into a mathematical decomposition.

Alleles↗