Darwin and Microbiology

This year marks the 201th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth. Darwin’s idea have influenced biology ever since, but his impact on microbiology is less well appreciated. Although it is commonly assumed that Darwin had nothing to say about microbes, he did in fact say quite a lot. He included microbes in his Beagle studies of the geographical distribution of organisms and used microscopic organisms as explicit exemplars of how adaptation did not imply increasing complexity. Darwin was both an audience of and a contributor to the natural history and experimental approaches to microbiology. The foremost microbiologists of the time corresponded with Darwin (e.g. Ferdinand Cohn, Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg). He read their work (e.g. Robert Koch’s, Louis Pasteur’s) and commented on it to others. Although Darwin did not draw heavily on the microbial world for observational data in his own work, he used his and other’s knowledge of microorganisms to sustain his arguments about natural selection. Little was known about microbial physiology in the years in which Darwin developed his theory of natural selection. In the application of medicine,  Darwin’s evolutionary theory did find a temporary footing, primarily in relation to the concept of specificity and the tumultuous variation of the microbial world. Darwin often discussed microorganismal classification, origins and experimentation in his correspondence. But despite his interest in microbial phenomena, Darwin’s impact on microbiological thinking of the late nineteenth century was negligible. This limited response may be connected to today’s assumptions about Darwin’s neglect of microbes. But today, despite the different evolutionary processes many microbes are known to undergo, Darwin’s basic principle still holds sway.

(Adapted from http://www.elsevier.com/copyright)

Source: www.sciencedaily.com

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