Doolittle W F
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 1X5.
Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 2009;74:197-204. doi: 10.1101/sqb.2009.74.002. Epub 2009 Aug 10.
In 1982, John Maynard Smith called for an evolutionary "New Synthesis" specific for prokaryotes, observing that "population thinking has been well developed for fully half a century, but has yet to be adopted by microbiology" (Maynard Smith 1982). Twenty-seven years later, typological thinking (population thinking's antithesis) still dominates the field. Evidence for this includes the continuing debates on the reality of prokaryotic species, the value of the term "prokaryote," and the significance of the tree of life (TOL). In each case, the unexpected prevalence of interlineage transfer of genetic information has been (or should now be) the catalyst for the final Darwinization of our discipline. With examples from phylogenomics, I argue that "species," "domains," and the "TOL" are reifications that we can do without, especially as genomics dissolves into metagenomics.
1982年，约翰·梅纳德·史密斯呼吁开展一场针对原核生物的进化“新综合”，他指出“群体思维已经充分发展了整整半个世纪，但尚未被微生物学所采用”（梅纳德·史密斯，1982年）。二十七年之后，类型学思维（群体思维的对立面）仍然主导着该领域。这方面的证据包括关于原核生物物种的真实性、“原核生物”一词的价值以及生命之树（TOL）的意义等持续不断的争论。在每种情况下，遗传信息跨谱系转移的意外普遍存在一直是（或者现在应该是）我们学科最终实现达尔文式进化的催化剂。通过系统发育基因组学的实例，我认为“物种”“域”和“生命之树”都是我们可以摒弃的具体化概念，尤其是在基因组学融入宏基因组学的情况下。
