Evolution without species: The case of mosaic bacteriophages

Gregory J. Morgan, W. Brad Pitts

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

Recent work in viral genomics has shown that bacteriophages exhibit a high degree of mosaicism, which is most likely due to a long history of prolific horizontal gene transfer (HGT). Given these findings, we argue that each of the most plausible attempts to properly classify bacteriophages into distinct species fail. Mayr's biological species concept fails because there is no useful viral analog to sexual reproduction. Phenetic species concepts fail because they obscure the mosaicism and the rich reticulated viral histories. Phylogenetic species concepts, even when extended to take into account reticulation, fail because there is no non-arbitrary distinction between recombination events that create a new viral species and those that do not. There is good reason to think that bacteriophages, arguably the Earth's most abundant biological agent, evolve without forming species.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)745-765
Number of pages21
JournalBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science
Volume59
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2008

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Evolution without species: The case of mosaic bacteriophages'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this