As for every task, nestmate recognition has a rich proximate basis, but the individual-level characteristics of the workers must always be considered from a colony-level perspective when questions of adaptation are considered.
At the core of evolutionary medicine is recognition that diseases need both proximate explanations of bodily mechanisms and evolutionary explanations of why natural selection has left the body vulnerable to disease.
Recognition that such evolutionary explanations are needed in addition to proximate explanations of mechanisms is just now dawning, along with recognition that categorical diagnoses that take no cognizance of environmental factors are fundamentally mistaken (Nesse and Jackson 2006; Wakefield and Horwitz 2007).
Syntenic conservation of GbX flanking genes in Xenopus tropicalis and Tetraodon nigroviridis is restricted to three proximate genes encoding a pleckstrin domain containing protein (PLEKHG), phospholipase and signal recognition particle SRP12 [ 20].
However, this codon was noted to be proximate to an ABS and may play a potential associative role in peptide recognition.
We document strong selection on environmental cue recognition in both populations and find that rearrangement of the same proximate mechanism – clustering of oocytes that become males and females – can enable an adaptive response to distinct environmental stimuli.
Consistent with such an interpretation, the sexes are often subject to divergent selection pressures in terms of, for example, aggressive behaviour and parental roles [ 10, 11] while, at the proximate level, they may also differ in cognitive abilities in colour or pattern recognition [ 12, 13].
For instance, such an approach has been used to discover the proximate causes of emotional and non-emotional memory [16], [17], [18], [19] and face recognition [20], [21].
Surely, it is both proximate and important.
Complacency among Americans was the proximate cause.
