What is Evolutionary Biology?

Evolutionary biology (evolutionary biology) Evolutionary biology is one of the most basic theories of biology. The theory of evolution proposed by Charles Darwin. He first proposed that natural selection is a mechanism of evolution. A comprehensive study of biological evolutionary processes and characteristics of biological communities, including ecology, behavior, and taxonomy. Evolutionary biology, including evolutionary genetics and evolutionary genomics. Evolution is the theoretical basis of experimental biology. Pan-evolutionary theory of biological systems based on systems theory establishes the theoretical basis of systems biology. Genetics and genomics are evolutionary organisms. The methodologies and systems of science, especially phylogenetics, have pioneered the study of cytogenetic system dynamics on genome self-organization evolution and organism development self-organization and their relationships, and have opened up new approaches for the development of evolutionary biology.

Evolutionary biology (evolutionary biology) is a science that studies biological evolution. Its research content includes evolutionary processes, evidence, causes, laws, doctrines, and the relationship between biological evolution and the earth. It is one of the most important disciplines in life sciences. Evolutionary biology is the continuation and development of the theory of evolution, which is an important foundation of evolutionary biology. Early studies on evolution mainly focused on theoretical discussions, and did not fully possess the general characteristics of modern natural science. In recent decades, with the rapid development of life sciences, the study of biological evolution has been extensively combined with disciplines such as ecology, molecular biology, and behavioral science. It has moved from inference to verification, from qualitative to quantitative, from basic theory to theory and application. This is one of the reasons why the subject name was updated to "evolutionary biology". On the other hand, evolutionary biology is relative to functional biology. Functional biology mainly studies the structure and function of objects themselves. Evolutionary biology studies life phenomena related to evolution. ^[1]

The research scope of evolutionary biology has the following six aspects:
(1) The starting point of biological evolution. Study the nature of life, the origin of life, the origin of cells, the origin of species, and the origin of humans.
(2) Evidence of biological evolution. Study the direct and indirect evidence of biological genesis, development, and human origin and evolution, as well as the intrinsic connections between these evidences.
(3) Factors and mechanisms of biological evolution. Study the structure and function of organisms, the diversity of biological types, the adaptability of organisms and the reasons for their formation or generation.
(4) The law of biological evolution. Study the direction, speed, form, dynamics, nature of biological evolution, and specific ways in which organisms interact with the environment.
(5) Control the evolution of species. Study how to use the laws of biological evolution and development to transform the biological world and continuously meet human needs.
(6) History of evolutionary biology. To study the various viewpoints, cognitions and understandings of biological evolution produced in different historical periods, and to apply various technological methods and methods from different perspectives to produce various types of biological evolution and their evolutionary processes. ^[1]

Early origin and evolution of life

The origin and evolution of life is an extremely critical process in the evolution of living things. Where does life come from? In the origin of life, how to form organic molecules from inorganic molecules, organic macromolecules from small organic molecules, organic macromolecules to form life macromolecules with original metabolism and replication capabilities, and then to form cell morphology Primitive life? During the early evolution of life, how to form a more complex form of life from the original form of life? Although these issues have achieved some important achievements in some aspects, however, no significant substantial progress has been made so far, and many links are still being explored or proposed Hypothetical stage.

Biodiversity

Biological diversity is a new discipline born in the mid-1980s. The general definition of biodiversity is the sum of the diversity of living organisms in nature and the ecological complexes formed between them and their environment and the various ecological processes associated with them. At various levels of biodiversity performance, it mainly includes two meanings: one is the characteristics or attributes of ecosystems; the other is the collection of all genes, species, and ecosystems. The study of biodiversity is mainly at three levels, that is, species diversity, genetic diversity, and ecosystem diversity at the species, genetic system, and ecosystem levels. The diversity and changes between these levels are interdependent. ,Inseparable. While biodiversity research is guided by the theory of biological evolution, its research results also provide detailed materials for biological evolution research directly or indirectly.

Systems biology

According to Hood's definition, systems biology is the study of the composition of all components (genes, mRNAs, proteins, etc.) in a biological system, and the interrelationship between these components under specific conditions. In other words, systems biology is different from previous experimental biology-it only cares about individual genes and proteins. It needs to study all the relationships between all genes, proteins, and components. Obviously, systems biology is a science characterized by holistic research. ^[1]

(1) Learning and studying evolutionary biology is of great significance to promoting the development of biology. The theoretical basis of evolutionary biology is biological evolution. The formation and development of biological evolution depends on the development of various branches of biology, such as cytology, Botany, zoology, physiology, comparative anatomy, paleontology, embryology, taxonomy, genetics and molecular biology. These disciplines study the movement of life and its regularity from different aspects, and evolutionary biology is just a summary and summary of the research results of these disciplines, which is highly comprehensive.

(2) Learning evolutionary biology to guide animal and plant breeding First, the improvement of animals and plants needs to be based on evolutionary theory, that is, not only the type of breed selected meets the needs of human production, but also its resistance to stress, so that the fittest can survive. Meet the needs of people. Secondly, breeding is to use artificial selection to accelerate the process of natural selection, which is actually artificial evolution. The third is to use the laws of cytogenetics and molecular genetics to systematically create certain new biological types, such as monomers, polyploids, haploids, polyploids, diploids, and nuclear-free types. Achieve artificial evolution. In addition, we can also use a variety of modern molecular biology technologies such as electric shock method, gene gun method, pollen tube introduction method and protoplast intake method to achieve the horizontal transfer of genes, cultivate genetically modified animals and genetically modified plants, and provide economic life for human beings. The continuous improvement and improvement offers. ^[2]