Evolutionary Cell Biology of the Fetal-Maternal Interface: Reflections on Evolutionary Innovation

The cell biological perspective on the evolution of the Fetal-Maternal Interface has several historical roots. The best known is the immunological paradox, i. e. the maternal tolerance of a semi-allogenous tissue in her body. Clinicians complain this view misleads clinical practice by pushing an incomplete paradigm based on a flawed analogy between an embryo and a xenotransplant. In this book the authors explore three alternative views of this interface: the cell biological paradox involved in embryo attachment, the inflammation paradox, and the tissue biological paradox. The conceptual core of this book is derived from the biological details of these paradoxical metaphors. The unifying idea is that evolutionary transformation of parts of the organism are opposed by the homeostatic tendencies of the body itself. Chapters explore innovations realized by mechanisms overcoming or modifying existing homeostatic mechanisms. On the other hand, the homeostatic mechanisms themselves can become the seed for evolutionary change, such as cellular stress mechanisms. A collateral topic is dedicated to a methodological critique of a popular research approach in evolutionary reproductive biology – the comparative method. Our critique is less directed towards the technical implementation of the comparative method, which is largely fine, but the anterior problem of how to represent the data and how to define the research questions. Another equally fascinating topic covered is the hypothesized connection between the evolution of invasive placentation and the evolution of cancer malignancy.

Günter Wagner is the Alison Richard Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. After undergraduate education in chemical engineering, Wagner studied zoology and mathematical logic at the University of Vienna, Austria. He finished his PhD in theoretical population genetics in 1979 and conducted postdoctoral research at Max Planck Institutes in Göttingen and Tübingen, as well as at the University of Göttingen. Wagner began his academic career as assistant professor in the Theoretical Biology Department of the University of Vienna. He then moved to Yale University as a full professor of biology and has served as the first chair of Yale's Department of Ecology and Evolution. The focus of Wagner's work is on the evolution of complex characters. His research utilizes both the theoretical tools of population genetics as well as experimental approaches in evolutionary developmental biology. He has contributed substantially to the current understanding of evolvability of complex organisms, the origin of novel characters, and modularity. Günter Wagner is recipient of numerous awards, among them the prestigious MacArthur Prize, the Bobby Murcer Prize, and the Humboldt Prize. He received nominations as Gomperz Lecturer, University of California, Berkeley; Koopmans Distinguished Lecturer, IIASA Vienna; Sewall Wright Speaker, University of Chicago, IL. He is also a corresponding Member of Austrian Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Wagner was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2018.

Mihaela Pavlicev, Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr., Deputy Head of the Department of Evolutionary Biology, Head of the Unit for Theoretical Biology at the University of Vienna. Her research focuses upon the organismal features that enable evolvability of complex organisms. She seeeks to understand phenotypic evolution, patterns of heritable phenotypic variation in the developmental/physiological systems, and the consequences of specific patterns of variation over short terms under selection and drift.