Smells Like Queen Since the Cretaceous

by Michel Chapuisat

Excerpt (with my emphasis): If some individuals react to these cues in ways that benefit them and the producer, selection can enhance the emission and reception until an efficient communication system based on evolved signals is established. In line with this reasoning, cuticular hydrocarbons appear to have become fertility signals in ants, bees, and wasps (4, 8).

Excerpt (with my emphasis) : “Similar selection pressures can lead to convergent adaptations across distant species.”

My comment: In Kohl (2012) and Kohl (2013) selection of food enabled the metabolism of nutrients to species-specific pheromones that control the physiology of reproduction in species from microbes to man.

Concluding sentence from Kohl (2012) “Olfaction and odor receptors provide a clear evolutionary trail that can be followed from unicellular organisms to insects to humans (Keller et al., 2007; Kohl, 2007; Villarreal, 2009; Vosshall, Wong, & Axel, 2000).”

Concluding paragraph from  Kohl (2013): “Unconscious affects that are manifested during the development of diversified life and human behavior are, by their very nature, part of life that few people think about (Kohl et al., 2001). Therefore, the largest contributor to the development of our personal preferences may be the unconscious epigenetic effects of food odors and pheromones on hormones that organize and activate behavior. If so, the model represented here is consistent with what is known about the epigenetic effects of ecologically important nutrients and pheromones on the adaptively evolved behavior of species from microbes to man. Minimally, this model can be compared to any other factual representations of epigenesis and epistasis for determination of the best scientific ‘fit’.”

Summary of  Chapuisat’s perspective: Convergent adaptations across distant species are due to similar selection pressures.

Kohl’s Law of ecological adaptation: The similarities in selection pressure are due to the fact that all organisms must eat. The metabolism of what they eat to species-specific pheromones controls the physiology of their reproduction, which is how food selection controls species survival and species divergence. Species divergence occurs in the absence of accumulated mutations that may eventually perturb intercellular interactions and nutrient-dependent pheromone-controlled ecological adaptations.  Even if accumulated mutations never perturb ecological adaptations, mutations are never beneficial. That means mutations do not contribute to mutation-driven evolution because no experimental evidence suggests that distant species naturally select for similar mutations (even if it were possibly for them to do that, which it is not).

I used the honeybee model organism and experimental evidence across a continuum of ecological adaptations to link similar selection pressures for food to the pheromone-controlled physiology of reproduction in species from microbes to man. Evolutionary theorists continue to insist that mutation-initiated natural selection is the best explanation for mutation-driven evolution and to ridicule Kohl’s Law of ecological adaptation. For example, see the extensive thread started when PZ Myers labeled me a “crank” as he did with the late John A. Davison, who did not have details of the conserved molecular mechanisms that result in the chromosomal rearrangements he correctly surmised are responsible for species divergence.  Note also that on Jan 16, 2014, PZ Myers banned me from further participation and added “homophobic” to the “crank” label.

See also:

Kohl, P. et al (2010) Systems Biology: An Approach

Kohl, KD (2012) Diversity and function of the avian gut microbiota

Kohl, J. et al (2013) A Bidirectional Circuit Switch Reroutes Pheromone Signals in Male and Female Brains

Maleszka, R. et al (2013) Epigenomics and the concept of degeneracy in biological systems

Horton, B. et al (2014) Estrogen receptor α polymorphism in a species with alternative behavioral phenotypes

Note: “Kohl’s law of ecological adaptation is based on representations made in our 1996 Hormones and Behavior review: From Fertilization to Adult Sexual Behavior.  For example, co-author Teresa Binstock, accurately represented the importance of what we now know are nutrient-dependent pheromone-controlled RNA-mediated ecological adaptations. These ecological adaptations result from the conserved molecular mechanisms of alternative splicings of pre-mRNA, amino acid substitutions, and chromosomal rearrangements, which link the epigenetic landscape to the physical landscape of DNA in the organized genomes of species from microbes to man via  nutrient-dependent changes in morphology and pheromone-controlled changes in behavior.