Immunodiagnostic approaches for detecting Taenia solium.

Abstract

just beginning to understand the genetics of speciation’. We believe that the current abuse of the species concepts confuses the evolutionary biology debate and we want to clarify this confusion. There are three elements of concern regarding the species concept: (i) taxonomy; (ii) evolution; and (iii) biological diversity assessment. The species as a taxonomic unit is not a real problem as long as keys for species recognition are available to the public. Describing evolution and its mechanisms, or assessing biological diversity are rendered difficult by the use of any species concept. Applying a species concept within the context of evolutionary biology forces one to deal with the evolution of a fixed entity. The evaluation of biological diversity cannot be performed properly if any type of species concept is used. This was demonstrated with our bacteria and birds example in Ref. [1]. Alternative tools for evaluating biological diversity that could be generalized are being developed [2]. The Escherichia coli lineage provides one example that illustrates these problems. The name E. coli is used to describe commensal bacteria of humans that protect the digestive tract from other microbes, whereas the name Shigella spp. describes another group of bacteria that are deadly pathogens of humans. Physicians consider E. coli and Shigella spp. as two different genera because of the differences in their effects on human health. However, Shigella are actually forms of E. coli that recurrently appear by lateral transfers of genes between different E. coli strains [3]. Thus, the distinction between E. coli and Shigella is clinically useful, but it is not helpful in terms of evolutionary biology or biodiversity assessment.