Year: 2022

GENE-CENTRIC ISSUE. “Particularly thorny is the observation that much variation is not random because developmental processes generate certain forms more readily than others.” https://lnkd.in/gninbRv View in LinkedIn

NON-RANDOM VARIATION. “For example, among one group of centipedes, each of the more than 1,000 species has an odd number of leg-bearing segments, because of the mechanisms of segment development.” http://www.nature.com/news/does-evolutionary-theory-need-a-rethink-1.16080 View in LinkedIn

ENVIRONMENTAL ADAPTATION. “In our view, this concept — developmental bias — helps to explain how organisms adapt to their environments and diversify into many different species.” https://lnkd.in/gninbRv View in LinkedIn

DEVELOPMENTAL BIAS. “Cichlid fishes in Lake Malawi are more closely related to other cichlids in Lake Malawi than to those in Lake Tanganyika, but species in both lakes have strikingly similar body shapes. In each case, some fish have large fleshy lips, others protruding foreheads, and still others short, robust lower jaws.” http://www.nature.com/news/does-evolutionary-theory-need-a-rethink-1.16080 View in LinkedIn

OLD PARADIGM. “Standard Evolutionary Theory explains such parallels as convergent evolution: similar environmental conditions select for random genetic variation with equivalent results. This account requires extraordinary coincidence to explain the multiple parallel forms that evolved independently in each lake.” http://www.nature.com/news/does-evolutionary-theory-need-a-rethink-1.16080 View in LinkedIn

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DEVELOPMENTAL GUIDED SELECTION. “A more succinct hypothesis is that developmental bias and natural selection work together. Rather than selection being free to traverse across any physical possibility, it is guided along specific routes opened up by the processes of development.” http://www.nature.com/news/does-evolutionary-theory-need-a-rethink-1.16080 View in LinkedIn

NICHE GUIDED SELECTION. “Another kind of developmental bias occurs when individuals respond to their environment by changing their form — a phenomenon called plasticity. For instance, leaf shape changes with soil water and chemistry.” http://www.nature.com/news/does-evolutionary-theory-need-a-rethink-1.16080 View in LinkedIn

IMPORTANCE OF PLASTICITY. “Standard Evolutionary Theory views this plasticity as merely fine-tuning, or even noise. The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis sees it as a plausible first step in adaptive evolution.” http://www.nature.com/news/does-evolutionary-theory-need-a-rethink-1.16080 View in LinkedIn

PLASTICITY FIRST. “The key finding here is that plasticity not only allows organisms to cope in new environmental conditions but to generate traits that are well-suited to them. If selection preserves genetic variants that respond effectively when conditions change, then adaptation largely occurs by accumulation of genetic variations that stabilize a trait after its first appearance. In other words, often it is the trait that comes first; genes that cement it follow, sometimes several generations late.” https://lnkd.in/gninbRv View in LinkedIn