Forsdyke D R
Department of Biochemistry, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 3N6, Canada.
J Theor Biol. 1999 Nov 7;201(1):47-61. doi: 10.1006/jtbi.1999.1013.
In 1886 Charles Darwin's research associate George Romanes published a paper entitled "Physiological Selection: An Additional Suggestion on the Origin of Species". This was criticized by his Victorian contemporaries and largely ignored by those who followed. However, the recent recognition of two levels of information in DNA suggests that Romanes had solved the major problems with Darwin's theory. It was apparent from the outset that the form of reproductive isolation likely to apply most generally to initial species divergence (hybrid sterility), would depend on differences, not in "primary" information ("genic"), but in "secondary" information ("chromosomal"). This viewpoint, further elaborated by Bateson & Saunders (1902), White (1978), and King (1993), is criticized by the genic school (Coyne & Orr, 1998) because it requires visible differences between chromosomes, and appears not to explain Haldane's rule. However, chromosomal differentiation with respect to the species-dependent component of base composition [(C+G)%; Forsdyke, 1996] appears to resolve these problems. Because it explained so much, it was easy to believe that the genic viewpoint explained everything. Romanes and Bateson thought otherwise. We are only just beginning to recognize what they were trying to tell us.
1886年，查尔斯·达尔文的研究伙伴乔治·罗曼斯发表了一篇题为《生理选择：关于物种起源的另一个建议》的论文。这篇论文遭到了他同时代维多利亚人的批评，在后来的人那里也基本上被忽视了。然而，最近对DNA中两个信息层次的认识表明，罗曼斯已经解决了达尔文理论的主要问题。从一开始就很明显，最普遍适用于初始物种分化（杂种不育）的生殖隔离形式，将取决于“二级”信息（“染色体”）的差异，而不是“一级”信息（“基因”）的差异。贝特森和桑德斯（1902年）、怀特（1978年）以及金（1993年）进一步阐述了这一观点，但遭到了基因学派（科因和奥尔，1998年）的批评，因为它要求染色体之间有明显差异，而且似乎无法解释霍尔丹法则。然而，关于碱基组成的物种依赖性成分[（C+G）%；福斯代克，1996年]的染色体分化似乎解决了这些问题。因为它解释了这么多，所以很容易让人相信基因观点能解释一切。但罗曼斯和贝特森却不这么认为。我们才刚刚开始认识到他们想告诉我们的东西。
