Grand Challenges in Comparative Physiology: Integration Across Disciplines and Across Levels of Biological Organization

摘要

Schwenk et al. (2009) provided an overview of five major challenges in organismal biology: (1) understanding the organism’s role in organism–environment linkages; (2) utilizing the functional diversity of organisms; (3) integrating living and physical systems analysis; (4) understanding how genomes produce organisms; and (5) understanding how organisms walk the tightrope between stability and change. Subsequent “Grand Challenges” papers have expanded on these topics from different viewpoints, including ecomechanics (Denny and Helmuth 2009), endocrinology (Denver et al. 2009), development of additional model organisms (Satterlie et al. 2009), and development of theoretical and financial resources (Halanych and Goertzen 2009). This is the sixth paper in the “Grand Challenges” series, which offers the view from comparative physiology.