Normal und alltäglich : Fusionen aus biologischer Sicht
Eigentlich ist die Biologie gar die Wissenschaft der Fusionen per se: Organismen fusionieren in Teilen oder in Gänze, sie fusionieren innerartlich, aber auch zwischen Arten, Familien, Ordnungen, ja sogar zwischen verschiedenen Reichen. In der Biologie wurde und wird auf allen Ebenen und in allen Zeiträumen fusioniert. Solche Fusionen dauern aber nur dann an, wenn sich das gesamte neue Arrangement als vorteilhaft bewährt.
Fusions are a common phenomenon
in biology, and occur on all organisational
levels, from sub-cellular
components to ecosystems. In fact,
fusion between complementary
DNA strands even forms the basis
of reproduction within all groups
of organisms on the molecular level.
Also the combination of male and
female gametes which then form a
diploid zygote can be considered
a fusion at the very core of sexual
reproduction. In terms of phylogeny,
fundamental fusion processes have
led to new groups of organisms such
as plants which are the product of
fusions between cyanobacteria and
heterotrophic cells. After uptake
by the host cells, the cyanobacteria
survived in a modified form, now
being named chloroplasts, which
harbour the photosynthetic active
compounds and thus are the basis of
many other forms of life such as animals
and humans on our planet. Even
humans are principally a product of
a fusion between human body cells
and foreign cells mainly consisting
of archaea, bacteria, and fungi, with
a ratio of approximately 10 foreign
cells per human body cell. In addition
to a variety of positive fusions
which may result in new organismic
groups such as lichens, this paper also
addresses mutualistic and negative
fusions which we know for example
from parasitic interactions. However,
even these potentially negative forms
of organismic fusions may have positive
effects if we analyse them from
an evolutionary point of view. In this
paper the authors present a couple
of examples which help to estimate
the importance of fusion processes in
biology and point out that biology
can be considered as THE discipline
of fusion research.