Biological Evolution and Statistical Physics

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-VIII

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2. Molecular information and evolution

   1. Statistical significance and extremal ensemble of gapped local hybrid alignment

      • Yi-Kuo Yu, Ralf Bundschuh, Terence Hwa

      Pages 3-21

   2. On the design of optimization criteria for multiple sequence alignment

      • Dannie Durand, Martin Farach-Colton

      Pages 22-36

   3. Red queen dynamics and the evolution of translational redundancy and degeneracy

      • David C. Krakauer, Vincent A.A. Jansen, Martin Nowak

      Pages 37-54

   4. A testable genotype-phenotype map: modeling evolution of RNA molecules

      • Peter Schuster

      Pages 55-81

   5. Evolutionary perspectives on protein structure, stability, and functionality

      • Richard A. Goldstein

      Pages 82-107

3. Phylogeny

   1. The statistical approach to molecular phylogeny: Evidence for a nonhyperthermophilic common ancestor

      • Nicolas Galtier

      Pages 111-121

   2. Principles of cophylogenetic maps

      • Michael A. Charleston

      Pages 122-147

   3. Accounting for phylogenetic uncertainty in comparative studies of evolution and adaptation

      • Mark Pagel, François Lutzoni

      Pages 148-161

   4. The‘ shape’ of phylogenies under simple random speciation models

      • Mike Steel, Andy McKenzie

      Pages 162-180

4. The evolution of populations and species

   1. Fitness landscapes

      • Peter F. Stadler

      Pages 183-204

   2. Tempo and mode in quasispecies evolution

      • Joachim Krug

      Pages 205-216

   3. Multilevel processes in evolution and development: Computational models and biological insights

      • Paulien Hogeweg

      Pages 217-239

   4. Evolutionary strategies for solving optimization problems

      • Werner Ebeling, Axel Reimann, Lutz Molgedey

      Pages 240-254

   5. Review of biological ageing on the computer

      • Dietrich Stauffer

      Pages 255-267

   6. Spatio-temporal modes of speciation

      • Martin Rost, Michael Lässig

      Pages 268-278

5. Large-scale evolution

   1. Food web structure and the evolution of ecological communities

      • Christopher Quince, Paul G. Higgs, Alan J. McKane

      Pages 281-298

   2. Dynamics and topology of species networks

      • Ugo Bastolla, Michael Lässig, Susanna C. Manrubia, Angelo Valleriani

      Pages 299-311

   3. Modelling macroevolutionary patterns: An ecological perspective

      • Ricard V. Solé

      Pages 312-337

This set of lecture notes gives a first coherent account of a novel aspect of the living world that can be called biological information. The book presents both a pedagogical and state-of-the art roadmap of this rapidly evolving area and covers the whole field, from information which is encoded in the molecular genetic code to the description of large-scale evolution of complex species networks. The book will prove useful for all those who work at the interface of biology, physics and information science.

• Adaptation
• Ensembl
• Statistical Physics
• Tempo
• evolution
• phylogeny

• Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Cologne, Köln, Germany

  Michael Lässig

• Theory Division, MPI for Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam, Germany

  Angelo Valleriani

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