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SLOW ROAD. “In contrast, variation introduced by point mutation will, most of the time, only adjust preexisting phenotypes.” https://lnkd.in/djKBnru View in LinkedIn

BOLT-ON GENE SETS. “Horizontal gene transfer can fundamentally alter the character of a microbial species by introducing fully functional genes and gene clusters that can confer complex phenotypes and functions that allow effective and competitive exploitation of new niches.” https://lnkd.in/djKBnru View in LinkedIn

EXTREME INNOVATION. “Even more radically inventive solutions can be expected when organisms have access to a rich variety of ready-made genes and gene complexes, as they do in real environments.” https://lnkd.in/djKBnru View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this first weekend fragment on the interesting recent observations of adaptation occurring in just a dozen generations rather than hundreds of thousands of years, as we have assumed. This rapid evolution is widespread. It is often triggered by human activity. The studies on blue tits have correlated the beak changes to gene changes and tied the bow on this interesting phenomenon. View in LinkedIn

CHANGING NATURAL SELECTION ITSELF. “Evolution may also occur quickly enough to alter the outcomes of ecological interactions and ecosystem-level processes, including those that generate selection in the first place.” https://lnkd.in/dAmAVYa View in LinkedIn

START OF SPECIATION. “Moreover, strong selection on observable time frames has caused substantial differentiation among populations within species, in some cases enough to represent the early stages of speciation.” https://lnkd.in/dAmAVYa View in LinkedIn

WIDESPREAD PHENOMENA. “Across a wide range of taxa, this contemporary evolution has been observed in many biological contexts, on fine spatial scales, and in the presence of gene flow.” https://lnkd.in/dAmAVYa View in LinkedIn

ANTHROPOGENIC IMPACT. “Contemporary evolution occurs in a wide diversity of ecological contexts, but appears to be especially common in response to anthropogenic changes in selection and population structure.” https://lnkd.in/dAmAVYa View in LinkedIn

AGGREGATE GENOMES. “In 1998, however, a new technology began to emerge that would transform our ability to study prokaryotes: Handelsman et al. coined the term “metagenome” to characterize the collective genomes of all microbes in a soil sample. They proposed to analyze this soil metagenome directly, without first having to culture the organisms in the soil.” https://standardsingenomics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40793-016-0180-8 View in LinkedIn

PRE-ISOLATION SPECIATION. “These models resemble sympatric speciation for genes, where ecological distinctiveness must arise before reproductive isolation.” https://lnkd.in/djKBnru View in LinkedIn