Developmental Instability: Causes and Consequences

This field has generated a large amount of controversy of late, mostly because of fierce rivalry between some of the leading workers in the area. This book pulls together a synthetic overview of the field of developmental instability and fluctuating asymmetry, with the participation of the leading laboratories on both sides of the divide. Thereby creating a much needed synthesis of this timely topic in social evolution, mediating some of the disputes in the field.

Table of Contents:
M. J. West-Eberhard: Foreword Contributors Introduction Part I. Origins 1: H. F. Nijhout and G. Davidowitz: Developmental Perspectives on Phenotypic Variation, Canalization, and Fluctuating Asymmetry 2: Christian Peter Klingenberg: A Developmental Perspective on Developmental Instability: Theory, Models, and Mechanisms 3: John H. Graham, John M. Emlen, and D. Carl Freeman: Nonlinear Dynamics and Developmental Instability 4: John M. Emlen, D. Carl Freeman, and John H. Graham: The Adaptive Basis of Developmental Instability: A Hypothesis and Its Implications 5: Steven W. Gangestad and Randy Thornhill: Fluctuating Asymmetry, Developmental Instability, and Fitness: Toward Model-Based Interpretation 6: Michal Polak et al.: Does an Individual Asymmetry Parameter Exist? A Meta-analysis Part II. Genetic Causes 7: Charles M. Woolf and Therese A. Markow: Genetic Models for Developmental Homeostasis: Historical Perspectives 8: Paul Alibert and Jean-Christophe Auffray: Genomic Coadaptation, Outbreeding Depression, and Developmental Instability 9: John A. McKenzie: The Analysis of the Asymmetry Phenotype: Single Genes and the Environment 10: Larry Leamy: Dominance, Epistasis, and Fluctuating Asymmetry 11: Rebecca C. Fuller and David Houle: Inheritance of Developmental Instability Part III. Fitness Consequences 12: Geoffrey M. Clarke: Developmental Stability--Fitness Relationships in Animals: Some Theoretical Considerations 13: Mary Tracy et al.: Developmental Instability: An Appropriate Indicator of Plant Fitness Components? 14: George W. Uetz and Phillip W. Taylor: Developmental Instability and Animal Communication: Fluctuating Asymmetry as a Signal and as an Influence on the Signaling Process 15: Joseph L. Tomkins and Leigh W. Simmons: Fluctuating Asymmetry and Sexual Selection: Paradigm Shifts, Publication Bias, and Observer Expectation 16: Anders Pape Mqller and José J. Cuervo: Asymmetry, Size, and Sexual Selection: Factors Affecting Heterogeneity in Relationships between Asymmetry and Sexual Selection Part IV. Statistical Tools 17: A. Richard Palmer and Curtis Strobeck: Fluctuating Asymmetry Analyses Revisited 18: Stefan Van Dongen, Luc Lens, and Geert Molenberghs: Recent Developments and Shortcomings in the Analysis of Individual Asymmetry: A Review and Introduction of a Bayesian Statistical Approach 19: Dmitry L. Lajus, John H. Graham, and Alexander V. Kozhara: Developmental Instability and the Stochastic Component of Total Phenotypic Variance Part V. Environmental Stress and Applications 20: D. Carl Freeman et al.: Plant Developmental Instability: New Measures, Applications, and Regulation 21: Ary A. Hoffmann and Richard E. Woods: Associating Environmental Stress with Developmental Stability: Problems and Patterns 22: Vladimir M. Zakharov: Linking Developmental Stability and Environmental Stres: A Whole Organism Approach 23: Brian Leung, Loren Knopper, and Pierre Mineau: A Critical Assessment of the Utility of Fluctuating Asymmetry as a Biomarker of Anthropogenic Stress 24: Christian Peter Klingenberg: Developmental Instability as a Research Tool: Using Patterns of Fluctuating Asymmetry to Infer the Developmental Origins of Morphological Integration Taxonomic Index Subject Index

Review :
"This new edited volume certainly provides a wonderful entrance into the current concepts and controversies in the field." --New Biological Books. "Altogether, this book is a pleasure to read. The individual chapters are well written and the book as a whole has clearly been well edited. It is also handsomely produced, with good clear print, decent figures, and very few typographical errors." BioScience