Botany - Research Publications
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://kr.cup.edu.in/handle/32116/32
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Item Public acceptence of Evolution in India(CSIR-NISCAIR, 2018) Bast, Felix; Tahilramani, HeenaThe public acceptance of evolution has been in debate since the initial publication of Darwin’s theory about origin of species. According to public polls carried out in a range of countries, the public acceptance of evolution is low in many countries with high degree of religiosity. Although religiosity is high in India, public acceptance of evolution has never been objectively evaluated in India yet. The rejection or denial of evolution could possibly offer the risk of shifting science education to common or popular beliefs and ideas, for example, creationism and intelligent design. Aim of the present study was to find out the public acceptance of evolution in India by carrying out a primary survey in 14 Indian states. Based upon the answers by the participants, the study explored the variables related to public acceptance of evolution namely, gender, religion, politics and occupation. The results showed that the 69.4% participants accepted evolution, which is very high compared with other countries of the world. Plausible reasons for high acceptance of evolution in India is being discussed in this paper.Item Tutorial on Phylogenetic Inference – 1(Indian Academy of Science, 2015) Bast, FelixPhylogenetic Inference is a statistical technique to trace the evolutionary legacy of a wide range of subjects including biological taxa (species), biomolecules, languages, ancient texts and so on. In Part 1 of the tutorial, we begin with an introduction to this field and discuss phenetics and cladistics — two major techniques used for phylogenetic inference. A number of fundamental concepts for understanding phylogenetic inference are introduced. In Part 2, we will learn models of molecular evolution and methods of phylogenetic inference, concluding with a worked-out example.Item Tutorial on Phylogenetic Inference Part-2(Indian Academy of Science, 2015) Bast, FelixPhylogenetic Inference (PI) is a statistical technique to trace the evolutionary legacy of a wide range of subjects; including biological taxa (species), biomolecules, languages, ancient texts and so on. The first part 1 of this tutorial introduced a number of fundamental concepts including phenetics, cladistics, homology, homoplasy, synapomorphy, symplesiomorphy, orthology and paralogy. In this part, we will learn about models of molecular evolution, choosing the best model, overview of various genetic loci used in PI, methods of PI (including distance matrix method, NJ, and discrete data methods ML, MP and BI), issue of lineage sorting and conclude with a worked-out example.Item Primary Succession Recapitulates Phylogeny(OMICS International, 2016) Bast, FelixThe parallelism between the process of primary succession and the evolution of life on this planet is remarkable and conspicuous, yet never been spotted before. The order, at which each seral community appear, right from the pioneer species until the climax communities, is by the order of appearance of the respective evolutionary lineages in the tree of life. Evolutionary history of life on this planet is, in fact, a massive and ongoing process of primary succession, and I believe that is the rationale for this striking harmony. Central premise of this postulation is the idea that the plants that have been evolved to adapt to an almost naked landscape would be the first to colonize new environments. In light of this parallelism, fields of ecological succession and phylogenetic systematics can mutually compliment for resolving perplexed conundrums, and can potentially enlighten the future of life on the planet earth.