Mary Jane West-Eberhard
Encyclopedia
Mary Jane West-Eberhard is an American theoretical biologist noted for arguing that phenotypic
and developmental plasticity played a key role in shaping animal evolution
and speciation
. She is also an entomologist notable for her work on the behavior and evolution of social wasp
s.
She is a member both of the United States National Academy of Sciences
and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
. In 2005 she was elected to be a foreign member of the Italian Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. She has been a past president (1991) of the Society for the Study of Evolution
. She won the 2003 R.R. Hawkins Award for the Outstanding Professional, Reference or Scholarly Work for her book Developmental Plasticity and Evolution (618 pages). In the same year she was the recipient of the Sewall Wright Award
. She has been selected as one of the 21 “Leaders in Animal Behavior”.
She is presently engaged in long term research projects at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
at the Escuela de Biologia, Universidad de Costa Rica.
She did all her degrees at the University of Michigan
. There she was taught by Richard D. Alexander
and had part-time employment in its Museum of Zoology
. She records that “I also learned the excitement of being a sleuth in the university libraries where even an undergraduate could explore an idea beyond textbooks and could feel like a pioneer”. She also corresponded with Edward Wilson
on trophic eggs in insects, and spent summers at Woods Hole and Cali
in Colombia
.
She did postdoctoral work (1967–1969) at Harvard University
with Howard Evans
. There she meet her husband. She then spent the next ten years (1969–1979) as an associate in biology at the University of Valle
. In 1973 she began an association with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
in Costa Rica
which became a full time employment in 1986.
). She has argued that origins of nonreproductive females in social wasps involves mutualism rather than only kin selection
or parental manipulation.
Her work upon social insects has played an important role in the development of her ideas upon phenotypic plasticity
. As she notes “From there I got interested in alternative phenotypes—alternative pathways and decision points during development, and their significance for evolution, especially for higher levels of organization, for speciation, and for macroevolutionary change without speciation.”
s, polyphenism
s, and context sensitive phenotype life history
and physiological traits. This resulted in her 2003 book Developmental Plasticity and Evolution.
She argues that such alternative phenotypes are important since they can lead to novel traits, and then to genetic divergence and so speciation. Through alternative phenotypes environmental induction can take the lead in genetic evolution. Her book Developmental Plasticity and Evolution developed in detail how such environmental plasticity plays a key role in understanding the genetic theory of evolution. Her argument is full of examples from butterflies to elephants.
's ideas in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
about sexual selection
and identify the key importance he gave to the “social competition for mates” as a factor in evolution and speciation
. She has noted how sexual selection can trap animals into sexual reproduction
.
, West-Eberhard has presently served for three terms on its Committee on Human Rights. She has also been noted as “active in promoting the careers of young scientists, particularly those doing work in Latin America”.
's, in that it
West-Eberhard has written,
Phenotypic plasticity
Phenotypic plasticity is the ability of an organism to change its phenotype in response to changes in the environment. Such plasticity in some cases expresses as several highly morphologically distinct results; in other cases, a continuous norm of reaction describes the functional interrelationship...
and developmental plasticity played a key role in shaping animal evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
and speciation
Speciation
Speciation is the evolutionary process by which new biological species arise. The biologist Orator F. Cook seems to have been the first to coin the term 'speciation' for the splitting of lineages or 'cladogenesis,' as opposed to 'anagenesis' or 'phyletic evolution' occurring within lineages...
. She is also an entomologist notable for her work on the behavior and evolution of social wasp
Wasp
The term wasp is typically defined as any insect of the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita that is neither a bee nor an ant. Almost every pest insect species has at least one wasp species that preys upon it or parasitizes it, making wasps critically important in natural control of their...
s.
She is a member both of the United States National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
. In 2005 she was elected to be a foreign member of the Italian Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. She has been a past president (1991) of the Society for the Study of Evolution
Society for the Study of Evolution
The Society for the Study of Evolution is a professional organization of evolutionary biologists. It was formed in the United States in 1946 to promote evolution and the integration of various fields of science concerned with evolution and to organize the publication of a scientific journal to...
. She won the 2003 R.R. Hawkins Award for the Outstanding Professional, Reference or Scholarly Work for her book Developmental Plasticity and Evolution (618 pages). In the same year she was the recipient of the Sewall Wright Award
Sewall Wright Award
The Sewall Wright Award is given annually by the American Society of Naturalists to a "senior-level" and active investigator making fundamental contributions the conceptual unification of the biological sciences. The award was established in 1991 and named after Sewall Wright. The recipient need...
. She has been selected as one of the 21 “Leaders in Animal Behavior”.
She is presently engaged in long term research projects at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, the only bureau of the Smithsonian Institution based outside of the United States, is dedicated to understanding biological diversity. What began in 1923 as small field station on Barro Colorado Island in the Panama Canal Zone has developed...
at the Escuela de Biologia, Universidad de Costa Rica.
Early life
West-Eberhard’s mother was a primary school teacher, and her father, a small-town businessman, and as parents they encouraged her curiosity. She recalls of her high school that the best scientific training “was an English course on critical reading and writing, taught by the school librarian. Biology class was just a workbook, an enormous disappointment for me.”She did all her degrees at the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
. There she was taught by Richard D. Alexander
Richard D. Alexander
Richard D. Alexander is an Emeritus Professor and Emeritus Curator of Insects at the Museum of Zoology of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. Prof...
and had part-time employment in its Museum of Zoology
Museums at the University of Michigan
The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor is home to a number of museums. The majority of them on Central Campus, which include the Exhibit Museum of Natural History , Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, and the University of Michigan Museum of Art...
. She records that “I also learned the excitement of being a sleuth in the university libraries where even an undergraduate could explore an idea beyond textbooks and could feel like a pioneer”. She also corresponded with Edward Wilson
E. O. Wilson
Edward Osborne Wilson is an American biologist, researcher , theorist , naturalist and author. His biological specialty is myrmecology, the study of ants....
on trophic eggs in insects, and spent summers at Woods Hole and Cali
Calì
Calì, also written in English as Cali, is an Italian surname, widespread mainly in the Ionian side of Sicily.For the surname Calì is assumed the origin of the Greek word kalos , or from its Sanskrit root kali, "time."The surname refers to:...
in Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
.
She did postdoctoral work (1967–1969) at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
with Howard Evans
Howard Ensign Evans
Howard Ensign Evans was an American entomologist who chiefly studied wasps.-Early life:Born in East Hartford, Connecticut, the son of Archie and Adella Evans, he developed an interest in natural history, and insects in particular, as a child on his parents' tobacco farm. He attended the...
. There she meet her husband. She then spent the next ten years (1969–1979) as an associate in biology at the University of Valle
University of Valle
The University of Valle , also called Univalle, is a public, departmental, coeducational, research university based primarily in the city of Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia. It is the largest higher education institution by student population in the southwest of the country, and the third in...
. In 1973 she began an association with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, the only bureau of the Smithsonian Institution based outside of the United States, is dedicated to understanding biological diversity. What began in 1923 as small field station on Barro Colorado Island in the Panama Canal Zone has developed...
in Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
which became a full time employment in 1986.
Social insects
West-Eberhard has investigated why wasps evolved from being casteless and nestsharing casteless to becoming highly specialized eusocial species using comparative studies of tropical wasps (HymenopteraHymenoptera
Hymenoptera is one of the largest orders of insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees and ants. There are over 130,000 recognized species, with many more remaining to be described. The name refers to the heavy wings of the insects, and is derived from the Ancient Greek ὑμήν : membrane and...
). She has argued that origins of nonreproductive females in social wasps involves mutualism rather than only kin selection
Kin selection
Kin selection refers to apparent strategies in evolution that favor the reproductive success of an organism's relatives, even at a cost to the organism's own survival and reproduction. Charles Darwin was the first to discuss the concept of group/kin selection...
or parental manipulation.
Her work upon social insects has played an important role in the development of her ideas upon phenotypic plasticity
Phenotypic plasticity
Phenotypic plasticity is the ability of an organism to change its phenotype in response to changes in the environment. Such plasticity in some cases expresses as several highly morphologically distinct results; in other cases, a continuous norm of reaction describes the functional interrelationship...
. As she notes “From there I got interested in alternative phenotypes—alternative pathways and decision points during development, and their significance for evolution, especially for higher levels of organization, for speciation, and for macroevolutionary change without speciation.”
Phenotypic plasticity
West-Eberhard has written from the mid 1980s upon the role of “alternative phenotypes,” such as polymorphismPolymorphism (biology)
Polymorphism in biology occurs when two or more clearly different phenotypes exist in the same population of a species — in other words, the occurrence of more than one form or morph...
s, polyphenism
Polyphenism
A polyphenic trait is a trait for which multiple, discrete phenotypes can arise from a single genotype as a result of differing environmental conditions.-Definition:A polyphenism is a biological mechanism that causes a trait to be polyphenic...
s, and context sensitive phenotype life history
Biological life cycle
A life cycle is a period involving all different generations of a species succeeding each other through means of reproduction, whether through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction...
and physiological traits. This resulted in her 2003 book Developmental Plasticity and Evolution.
She argues that such alternative phenotypes are important since they can lead to novel traits, and then to genetic divergence and so speciation. Through alternative phenotypes environmental induction can take the lead in genetic evolution. Her book Developmental Plasticity and Evolution developed in detail how such environmental plasticity plays a key role in understanding the genetic theory of evolution. Her argument is full of examples from butterflies to elephants.
Sexual and social selection
West-Eberhard was among the first scientists to reexamine Charles DarwinCharles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
's ideas in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex is a book on evolutionary theory by English naturalist Charles Darwin, first published in 1871. It was Darwin's second great book on evolutionary theory, following his 1859 work, On The Origin of Species. In The Descent of Man, Darwin applies...
about sexual selection
Sexual selection
Sexual selection, a concept introduced by Charles Darwin in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species, is a significant element of his theory of natural selection...
and identify the key importance he gave to the “social competition for mates” as a factor in evolution and speciation
Speciation
Speciation is the evolutionary process by which new biological species arise. The biologist Orator F. Cook seems to have been the first to coin the term 'speciation' for the splitting of lineages or 'cladogenesis,' as opposed to 'anagenesis' or 'phyletic evolution' occurring within lineages...
. She has noted how sexual selection can trap animals into sexual reproduction
Sexual reproduction
Sexual reproduction is the creation of a new organism by combining the genetic material of two organisms. There are two main processes during sexual reproduction; they are: meiosis, involving the halving of the number of chromosomes; and fertilization, involving the fusion of two gametes and the...
.
Other work
As a member of the United States National Academy of SciencesUnited States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
, West-Eberhard has presently served for three terms on its Committee on Human Rights. She has also been noted as “active in promoting the careers of young scientists, particularly those doing work in Latin America”.
Quotations
Marlene Zuk has described West-Eberhard's work as being similar to Sewall WrightSewall Wright
Sewall Green Wright was an American geneticist known for his influential work on evolutionary theory and also for his work on path analysis. With R. A. Fisher and J.B.S. Haldane, he was a founder of theoretical population genetics. He is the discoverer of the inbreeding coefficient and of...
's, in that it
reflects a careful attention to the details of natural history without losing sight of the theoretical significance of her findings; her ideas are infused with a pragmatism that makes her hypotheses testable in real world settings. She eschews fads, musing once that the phrase “cutting edge” always reminded her of a roll of aluminum foil and pointing out in another conversation that those who describe experiments as “elegant” are virtually always talking about their friends' work.
West-Eberhard has written,
If the 20th century was the Age of the Gene, the 21st century promises to be the Age of The Environment, and of Gene Expression.
the current movement of laboratory evo-devo from DNA to proteomics and beyond, is leading the most reductionistic fields of biology to embrace the phenotype and will eventually illuminate the genotype–phenotype map that permits a response to selection.
Social wasps
- 1967. Foundress associations in polistine wasps: dominance hierarchies and the evolution of social behavior. Science 157(3796):1584-1585. PMID 6038176
- 1969. The Social Biology of Polistine Wasps. Misc. Publ. Univ. Mich. Mus. Zool. 140:1-101.
- 1970. Wasps. (with H. E. EvansHoward Ensign EvansHoward Ensign Evans was an American entomologist who chiefly studied wasps.-Early life:Born in East Hartford, Connecticut, the son of Archie and Adella Evans, he developed an interest in natural history, and insects in particular, as a child on his parents' tobacco farm. He attended the...
). University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor. ISBN 978-0715360606 - 1975. The evolution of social behavior by kin selection. Quart. Rev. Biol. 50(1):1-33.
- 1978. Temporary queens in Metapolybia wasps: Non-reproductive helpers without altruism? Science 200 (4340):441-443. PMID 17757302
- 1987. Flexible strategy and social evolution. In Animal societies: Theories and facts, Y. Ito, J. L. Brown, and J. Kikkawa, eds., Japan Scientific Societies Press, Ltd., Tokyo, pp. 35–51. ISBN 9784762205149
- 1988. (with W. T. Wcislo and W. G. Eberhard). Natural history and behavior of a primitively social wasp Auplopus semialatus, and a parasite, Irenangelus eberhardi (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae). J. Insect Behavior 1(2):247-60.
- 1996. Wasp societies as microcosms for the study of development and evolution., pp. 290–317. In Natural history and evolution of paper wasps. (editors, West-Eberhard, M-J. & S. Turillazzi) Oxford University Press, Oxford. ISBN 978-0198549475
- 2005. (with T. Giray and M. Giovanetti) Juvenile hormone, reproduction, and worker behavior in the neotropical social wasp Polistes canadensis. Proceedings National Academy of Sciences USA 102(9):3330-3335. PMID 15728373
- 2005. The behavior of the primitively social wasp Montezumia cortesioides Willink (Vespidae, Eumeninae) and the origins of vespid sociality. Ecology Ethology and Evolution 17:51-65.
Phenotypical plasticity
- 1986. Alternative adaptations, speciation, and phylogeny. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 83(5):1388-1392. PMID 16578790
- 1989. Phenotypic plasticity and the origins of diversity. Ann. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 20:249-278.
- 1998. Evolution in the light of developmental and cell biology, and vice versa. Proceedings National Academy of Sciences USA 95:8417-8419. PMID 9671691
- 2002. Development and selection in adaptive evolution. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 17(2):65.
- 2003. Developmental plasticity and evolution. Oxford University Press, New York. ISBN 978-0195122350
- 2005. Developmental plasticity and the origin of species differences. Proceedings National Academy of Sciences USA 102, Suppl. 1:6543-6549. PMID 15851679
- 2005. Phenotypic accommodation: Adaptive innovation due to developmental plasticity. Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B ( Molecular and Developmental Evolution) 304B:610-618. PMID 16161068
- 2007. Dancing with DNA and flirting with the ghost of Lamarck. Biology & Philosophy 22(3):439-451.
- 2007. Developmental Plasticity, Evolution and the origins of disease. in Nesse, R. (ed.), Evolution and Medicine: How New Applications Advance Research and Practice, The Biomedical & Life Sciences Collection, Henry Stewart Talks Ltd, London (online at http://www.hstalks.com/bio)
- 2007. Are genes good markers of biological traits? 175-193. In Biological Surveys. National Research Council Committee on Advances in Collecting and Utilizing Biological Indicators and Genetic Information in Social Science Surveys. Weinstein, M., Vaupel, J. W. and Wachter, K.W. (editors), National Academies Press, Washington.
- 2008. Toward a Modern Revival of Darwin's Theory of Evolutionary Novelty. Philosophy of Science, 75:899-908.
Sexual selection
- 1979. Sexual selection, social competition, and evolution. Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc. 51(4):222-234.
- 1983. Sexual selection, social competition, and speciation. Quart. Rev. Biol. 58(2):155-183.
- 2005. The maintenance of sex as a developmental trap due to sexual selection. Quarterly Review of Biology 80(1):47-53. PMID 15884735
Other
- 2005. Howard E. Evans 1919-2002. Biographical Memoirs, Volume 86. National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., pp. 1–19.
- 2005. (with P.C. AgrePeter AgrePeter Agre is an American medical doctor, professor, and molecular biologist who was awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of aquaporins. Aquaporins are water-channel proteins that move water molecules through the cell membrane...
, S. AltmanSidney AltmanSidney Altman is a Canadian American molecular biologist, who is currently the Sterling Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and Chemistry at Yale University. In 1989 he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Thomas R...
, F.R. CurlRobert CurlRobert Floyd Curl, Jr. the son of a Methodist Minister is a graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School in San Antonio, Texas and is an emeritus professor of chemistry at Rice University....
and T.N. WieselTorsten WieselTorsten Nils Wiesel was a Swedish co-recipient with David H. Hubel of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for their discoveries concerning information processing in the visual system; the prize was shared with Roger W...
). Using ethics to fight bioterrorism. Science 309:1013-1014. PMID 16106523