User:Jtwsaddress42/Darwin's Program/Introduction To Somatic Selection Systems

Introduction To Somatic Selection Systems
Edelman saw the immune system as an ideal model for the study of how population dynamics shape somatic evolution within a population. But, the immune system is just one of many systems in the vertebrate body comprised of a multitude of variant cell populations acting in a coordinated manner as somatic selection systems. The vertebrate immune system, because of it's dissociated nature and distinctively variant antibody idiotypes, has been historically the easiest to study as a somatic selection system but, much of what we have learned about the immune system can be applied to other systems in the body.

Similarly, we could treat the developing embryo or nervous system. Very few, if any, neurons in the vertebrate nervous system act solo. Most individual neurons undergo somatic selection during embryogenesis and ultimately find themselves a member of a neuronal group, array, or ensemble, whether that be in the form of ganglia, nuclei, or laminae. Like organisms in the environment, neurons are born into a population of other cells and find themselves members of a community or group. For these neurons, their group is their ecology - and, natural selection operates as usual but in a somatic context.