Grünbaum Daniel, Padilla Dianna K
*Department of Biological Oceanography, School of Oceanography, Box 357940, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-7940, USA; Department of Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-5245, USA
*Department of Biological Oceanography, School of Oceanography, Box 357940, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-7940, USA; Department of Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-5245, USA.
Integr Comp Biol. 2014 Jul;54(2):323-35. doi: 10.1093/icb/icu045. Epub 2014 May 26.
Many of the most interesting questions in organismal biology, especially those involving the functional and adaptive significance of organismal characteristics, intrinsically transcend levels of biological organization. These organismal functions typically involve multiple interacting biological mechanisms. We suggest that subdisciplinary advances have led both to the opportunity and to the necessity to reintegrate knowledge into a new understanding of the whole organism. We present a conceptual framework for a modeling approach that addresses the functioning of organisms in an integrative way, incorporating elements from environments, populations, individuals, and intra-organismal dynamics such as physiology and behavior. To give substance to our conceptual framework, we provide a preliminary focal case study using phenotypic plasticity in the tooth morphology of snails in the genus Lacuna. We use this case study to illustrate ways in which questions about the evolution and ecology of organismal function intrinsically span all organizational levels. In this case, and in many others, quantitative approaches that integrate across mechanisms and scales can suggest new hypotheses about organismal function, and provide new tools to test those hypotheses. Integrative quantitative models also provide roadmaps for the large-scale collaborations among diverse disciplinary specialists that are needed to gain deeper insights into organismal function.
在生物有机体生物学中，许多最有趣的问题，尤其是那些涉及生物特征的功能和适应性意义的问题，本质上超越了生物组织的层次。这些生物功能通常涉及多种相互作用的生物学机制。我们认为，各子学科的进展既带来了将知识重新整合为对整个生物体的新理解的机会，也带来了这种必要性。我们提出了一个建模方法的概念框架，该框架以综合的方式处理生物体的功能，纳入来自环境、种群、个体以及生物体内动态（如生理学和行为）等方面的要素。为了充实我们的概念框架，我们提供了一个初步的重点案例研究，该研究以Lacuna属蜗牛牙齿形态的表型可塑性为例。我们利用这个案例研究来说明关于生物功能的进化和生态学问题如何本质上跨越所有组织层次。在这个案例以及许多其他案例中，整合机制和尺度的定量方法可以提出关于生物功能的新假设，并提供检验这些假设的新工具。综合定量模型还为不同学科专家之间的大规模合作提供了路线图，而这种合作对于更深入地理解生物功能是必不可少的。
