Cargando…

How Well Does Evolution Explain Endogenous Retroviruses?—A Lakatosian Assessment

One of the most sophisticated philosophies of science is the methodology of scientific research programmes (MSRP), developed by Imre Lakatos. According to MSRP, scientists are working within so-called research programmes, consisting of a hard core of fixed convictions and a flexible protective belt...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Jorritsma, Ruben N.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8781664/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35062218
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v14010014
_version_ 1784638132918943744
author Jorritsma, Ruben N.
author_facet Jorritsma, Ruben N.
author_sort Jorritsma, Ruben N.
collection PubMed
description One of the most sophisticated philosophies of science is the methodology of scientific research programmes (MSRP), developed by Imre Lakatos. According to MSRP, scientists are working within so-called research programmes, consisting of a hard core of fixed convictions and a flexible protective belt of auxiliary hypotheses. Anomalies are accommodated by changes to the protective belt that do not affect the hard core. Under MSRP, research programmes are appraised as ‘progressive’ if they successfully predict novel facts but are judged as ‘degenerative’ if they merely offer ad hoc solutions to anomalies. This paper applies these criteria to the evolutionary research programme as it has performed during half a century of ERV research. It describes the early history of the field and the emergence of the endogenization-amplification theory on the origins of retroviral-like sequences. It then discusses various predictions and postdictions that were generated by the programme, regarding orthologous ERVs in different species, the presence of target site duplications and the divergence of long terminal repeats, and appraises how the programme has dealt with data that did not conform to initial expectations. It is concluded that the evolutionary research programme has been progressive with regard to the issues here examined.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8781664
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-87816642022-01-22 How Well Does Evolution Explain Endogenous Retroviruses?—A Lakatosian Assessment Jorritsma, Ruben N. Viruses Review One of the most sophisticated philosophies of science is the methodology of scientific research programmes (MSRP), developed by Imre Lakatos. According to MSRP, scientists are working within so-called research programmes, consisting of a hard core of fixed convictions and a flexible protective belt of auxiliary hypotheses. Anomalies are accommodated by changes to the protective belt that do not affect the hard core. Under MSRP, research programmes are appraised as ‘progressive’ if they successfully predict novel facts but are judged as ‘degenerative’ if they merely offer ad hoc solutions to anomalies. This paper applies these criteria to the evolutionary research programme as it has performed during half a century of ERV research. It describes the early history of the field and the emergence of the endogenization-amplification theory on the origins of retroviral-like sequences. It then discusses various predictions and postdictions that were generated by the programme, regarding orthologous ERVs in different species, the presence of target site duplications and the divergence of long terminal repeats, and appraises how the programme has dealt with data that did not conform to initial expectations. It is concluded that the evolutionary research programme has been progressive with regard to the issues here examined. MDPI 2021-12-22 /pmc/articles/PMC8781664/ /pubmed/35062218 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v14010014 Text en © 2021 by the author. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Jorritsma, Ruben N.
How Well Does Evolution Explain Endogenous Retroviruses?—A Lakatosian Assessment
title How Well Does Evolution Explain Endogenous Retroviruses?—A Lakatosian Assessment
title_full How Well Does Evolution Explain Endogenous Retroviruses?—A Lakatosian Assessment
title_fullStr How Well Does Evolution Explain Endogenous Retroviruses?—A Lakatosian Assessment
title_full_unstemmed How Well Does Evolution Explain Endogenous Retroviruses?—A Lakatosian Assessment
title_short How Well Does Evolution Explain Endogenous Retroviruses?—A Lakatosian Assessment
title_sort how well does evolution explain endogenous retroviruses?—a lakatosian assessment
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8781664/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35062218
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v14010014
work_keys_str_mv AT jorritsmarubenn howwelldoesevolutionexplainendogenousretrovirusesalakatosianassessment