Evolutionary trajectory of complex traits observed

William Atkins
Monday, 23 June 2008 20:37

Science - Biology

Dr. P.Z. Meyers commented on the research paper and their studies within the blog “Historical contingency in the evolution of E. coli.”

Meyers states within his blog, “The key phrase is right there at the beginning of the title: "historical contingency." This paper is all about how accidents in the genetics of a population can shape its future evolutionary trajectory. It is describing how a new capability that requires some complex novelties can evolve, and it is saying plainly that in this case it is not by the fortuitous simultaneous appearance of a set of mutations, but is conditional on the genetic background of the population."

He continues, "That is, two populations may be roughly equivalent in fitness and phenotype, but the presence of (probably) neutral mutations in one may enable other changes that predispose it to particular patterns of change.”

Meyers comments, "What Blount et al. are doing is testing SJ Gould's old claim that if we replayed the tape of life, we would not get the same results each time. Each step in evolution is dependent on prior history — it is contingent — and since many of the steps are driven by chance yet unfiltered by selection, we cannot predict the direction of evolution."

Meyers talks more about this research in the before-mentioned website. He goes into the debate between creationists and evolutionists with respect to the results of the study.