New Frontiers for Organismal Biology

June 2013 / Vol. 63 No. 6 www.biosciencemag.org have generated extensive fundamental knowledge that now has us superbly positioned for “returning to the organism” (Stillman et al. 2011). The challenge is to extend, integrate, and exploit the insights from “outward” and “inward” gene-oriented biology to develop a deeper understanding of individual organisms’ higher-order emergent characteristics, such as epigenetic mechanisms and complex physiological and behavioral traits, including intelligence. For instance, we need to better understand how individual variation in complex physiological and behavioral characteristics or traits influences ecological and evolutionary processes (Autumn et al. 2002, Gerhart and Kirschner 2007). Facing this broad challenge requires cross-fertilization and integration across the traditionally disparate fields of biology, including developmental biology, physiology, microbiology, behavioral biology, neuroscience, phylogenetics, and ecology, and also requires the application of computationally intensive technologies to the emergent traits of the organism (Ungerer et al. 2008). These disciplines are already developing stronger bonds among one another because of their collective growing appreciation of the importance of the individual organism as a fundamental unit of study (Wake 2008). The organism is the central unit for integration of both of the major determinants of biological form and function—genes and the environment (Lewontin 2000). However, over the past several decades, the focus of biology has shifted considerably to studying genes rather than organisms by moving in two directions simultaneously. Moving outward from the organism toward broadscale evolutionary issues, the synthesis of Mendelian genetics with Darwinian theory led to a creative focus on mathe matics, modeling, and theoretical approaches, giving birth to population and quantitative genetics. Moving inward from the organism toward cellular and molecular biology, reductionist experimental approaches based on DNA technologies allowed the experimental dissection of cause–effect relationships between individual genes and their contribution to cellular and higher-level structure and function. These two movements resulted in many of the monumental discoveries and advances that define the current state of biology. However, they also led to an eclipse of the organism by the gene as the fundamental unit of biology. A focus on the gene will continue to be a major pillar of biology. In addition, the two broad gene-oriented lines of study outlined above, together with technological advances, New Frontiers for Organismal Biology