Linking a mutation to survival in wild mice

Science ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 363 (6426) ◽  
pp. 499-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rowan D. H. Barrett ◽  
Stefan Laurent ◽  
Ricardo Mallarino ◽  
Susanne P. Pfeifer ◽  
Charles C. Y. Xu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Laboratory Experiments ◽  
Coat Color ◽  
Sequence Variant ◽  
Binding Properties ◽  
Wild Mice ◽  
Functional Connections ◽  
Changing Environments ◽  
Population Allele Frequency ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection

Adaptive evolution in new or changing environments can be difficult to predict because the functional connections between genotype, phenotype, and fitness are complex. Here, we make these explicit connections by combining field and laboratory experiments in wild mice. We first directly estimate natural selection on pigmentation traits and an underlying pigment locus, Agouti, by using experimental enclosures of mice on different soil colors. Next, we show how a mutation in Agouti associated with survival causes lighter coat color through changes in its protein binding properties. Together, our findings demonstrate how a sequence variant alters phenotype and then reveal the ensuing ecological consequences that drive changes in population allele frequency, thereby illuminating the process of evolution by natural selection.

scholarly journals The fitness consequences of genetic variation in wild populations of mice

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rowan D.H. Barrett ◽  
Stefan Laurent ◽  
Ricardo Mallarino ◽  
Susanne P. Pfeifer ◽  
Charles C.Y. Xu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Field Experiment ◽  
Allele Frequency ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Coat Colour ◽  
Deer Mice ◽  
Sequence Variant ◽  
Wild Populations ◽  
Exon 2 ◽  
Functional Connections

Adaptive evolution can occur when genetic change affects traits subject to natural selection. Although selection is a deterministic process, adaptation can be difficult to predict in finite populations because the functional connections between genotype, phenotype, and fitness are complex. Here, we make these connections using a combination of field and laboratory experiments. We conduct a large-scale manipulative field experiment with wild populations of deer mice in distinct habitats to directly estimate natural selection on pigmentation traits and next test whether this selection drives changes in allele frequency at an underlying pigment locus. We find that divergent cryptic phenotypes are repeatedly favoured in each habitat, leaving footprints of selection in the Agouti gene. Next, using transgenic experiments in Mus, we functionally test one of the Agouti mutations associated with survival, a Serine deletion in exon 2, and find that it causes lighter coat colour via changes in its protein binding properties. Finally, we show significant change in the frequency of this mutation in our field experiment. Together, our findings demonstrate how a sequence variant alters phenotype and show the ensuing ecological consequences that drive changes in population allele frequency, thereby revealing the full process of evolution by natural selection.

scholarly journals Turing Machines and Evolution. A Critique of Gregory Chaitin’s Metabiology

2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-150
Author(s):  
Radosław Siedliński
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Model ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Turing Machines ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection

Abstract The aim of the paper is twofold. First, it presents the fundamental ideas and results of the “metabiology” created by Gregory Chaitin. Second, it shows why metabiology ultimately fails as a candidate for being a proper mathematical model for the theory of evolution by natural selection. Because of genocentric reductionism and biological oversimplifications, metabiology should be perceived rather as an expression of the philosophical worldview of it’s author.

Small Fish, Big Questions: Inquiry Kits for Teaching Evolution

2018 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily A. Kane ◽  
E. Dale Broder ◽  
Andrew C. Warnock ◽  
Courtney M. Butler ◽  
A. Lynne Judish ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Evolution Education ◽  
Small Fish ◽  
Teaching Evolution ◽  
Local Schools ◽  
Broader Impacts ◽  
Hands On ◽  
Education And Outreach ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection

Evolution education poses unique challenges because students can have preconceptions that bias their learning. Hands-on, inquiry approaches can help overcome preset beliefs held by students, but few such programs exist and teachers typically lack access to these resources. Experiential learning in the form of self-guided kits can allow evolution education programs to maximize their reach while still maintaining a high-quality resource. We created an inquiry-based kit that uses live Trinidadian guppies to teach evolution by natural selection using the VIST (Variation, Inheritance, Selection, Time) framework. Our collaborative team included evolutionary biologists and education specialists, and we were able to combine expertise in evolution research and inquiry-based kit design in the development of this program. By constructing the kits with grant funds slated for broader impacts and maintaining them at our university's Education and Outreach Center, we made these kits freely available to local schools over the long term. Students and teachers have praised how clearly the kits teach evolution by natural selection, and we are excited to share this resource with readers of The American Biology Teacher.

Getting Beyond the Apemen

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Lesley Newson ◽  
Peter J. Richerson
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Human Evolution ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Adult Males ◽  
Evolutionary Processes ◽  
Complex Information ◽  
History Of ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection

This introductory chapter explains why a new story of human evolution is needed, and also lays the foundations of the story told in this book. One of the reasons we need a new story is that previous stories have concentrated on what our male ancestors were doing. Since survival is most at risk in the first years of life, it makes much more sense to concentrate on children and their mothers than on adult males. A brief account of the history of ideas in evolution by natural selection and human evolution provides readers with a background in evolutionary processes. Humans are a product of evolution, but we are not like other animals, because we are connected and readily share complex information. We are unique and our evolution was the result of a unique evolutionary process. To understand ourselves in evolutionary terms, it’s necessary to consider two intertwined evolutionary processes—genes and culture.

2. Evolution and natural selection

2019 ◽  
pp. 9-26
Author(s):  
Samir Okasha
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Philosophical Argument ◽  
Modern Biology ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Philosophical Significance ◽  
Argument From Design ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection

In 1859 Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, in which he set out his theory of evolution. The book marked a turning point in our understanding of the natural world and revolutionized biology. ‘Evolution and natural selection’ outlines the theory of evolution by natural selection, explaining its unique status in biology and its philosophical significance. It considers how Darwin’s theory undermined the ‘argument from design’, a traditional philosophical argument for the existence of God; how the integration of Darwin’s theory with genetics, in the early 20th century, gave rise to neo-Darwinism; and why, despite evolutionary theory being a mainstay of modern biology, in society at large there is a marked reluctance to believe in evolution.

What the human annals tell us

1999 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 888-888 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwen J. Broude
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Kin Selection ◽  
Reciprocal Altruism ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Mental Processes ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Cultural Data

Evidence reveals numerous cross-cultural universals regarding human mental processes and behavior. Similarly, cross-cultural data are consistent with predictions from theories of kin selection, reciprocal altruism, and sexual selection inspired by Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. Thus, the “annals of human behaviour” do provide “example[s] fitting the sociobiological bill,” (Lifelines, p. 202) thereby, supporting sociobiological accounts of human behavior.

scholarly journals Value of species and the evolution of conservation ethics

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (11) ◽  
pp. 181038 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darragh Hare ◽  
Bernd Blossey ◽  
H. Kern Reeve
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Apparent Contradiction ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Conservation Ethics ◽  
Cultural Conditions ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection ◽  
Time Required

The theory of evolution by natural selection can help explain why people care about other species. Building upon recent insights that morality evolves to secure fitness advantages of cooperation, we propose that conservation ethics (moral beliefs, attitudes, intuitions and norms regarding other species) could be adaptations that support cooperation between humans and non-humans. We present eco-evolutionary cost–benefit models of conservation behaviours as interspecific cooperation (altruism towards members of other species). We find that an evolutionary rule identical in structure to Hamilton's rule (which explains altruistic behaviour towards related conspecifics) can explain altruistic behaviour towards members of other species. Natural selection will favour traits for selectively altering the success of members of other species (e.g. conserving them) in ways that maximize inclusive fitness return benefits. Conservation behaviours and the ethics that evolve to reinforce them will be sensitive to local ecological and socio-cultural conditions, so will assume different contours in different places. Difficulties accurately assessing costs and benefits provided by other species, time required to adapt to ecological and socio-cultural change and barriers to collective action could explain the apparent contradiction between the widespread existence of conservation ethics and patterns of biodiversity decline globally.

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