Symbiogenesis

A New Principle of Evolution

Boris Mikhaylovich Kozo-Polyansky, Victor Fet, Lynn Margulis, Lynn Margulis, Victor Fet

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN:
  9780674050457
• eBook ISBN:
  9780674056589
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Ecology
• Index: Biological Sciences

More than eighty years ago, before we knew much about the structure of cells, Russian botanist Boris Kozo-Polyansky brilliantly outlined the concept of symbiogenesis, the symbiotic origin of cells with nuclei. It was a half-century later, only when experimental approaches that Kozo-Polyansky lacked were applied to his hypotheses, that scientists began to accept his view that symbiogenesis could be united with Darwin's concept of natural selection to explain the evolution of life. After decades of neglect, ridicule, and intellectual abuse, Kozo-Polyansky's ideas are now endorsed by virtually all biologists.

Kozo-Polyansky's seminal work is presented here for the first time in an outstanding annotated translation, updated with commentaries, references, and modern micrographs of symbiotic phenomena.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• The Importance of B. M. Kozo- Polyansky’s Work for Modern Science
• Introduction
• Note to the Reader
• Kozo- Polyansky’s Life
• Acknowledgments
• Original Russian book title page
• Modern status of Kozo-Polyansky’s view of the net of life: Symbiogenesis refined by Darwin–Wallace “natural selection”
• Preface
• Chapter I. Noncellular Organisms (Cytodes) and Bioblasts [Prokaryotes]
• Chapter II. The Cell and Its Organelles
• Chapter III. Multicellular Organisms
• Chapter IV. The Philosophy of Symbiogenesis
• Chapter V. History of Symbiogenesis Theory
• References to Kozo- Polyansky’s Text
• Kozo- Polyansky’s Taxa
• Editors’ Commentary
• Commentary References
• Modern Classifi cation of Life (Most Inclusive “Higher” Taxa)
• Glossary
• Index