Robustness and Evolvability

By Joanna Masel, Meredith V. Trotter. 2010

281 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Why isn’t random variation always deleterious? Are there factors that sometimes make adaptation easier? Biological systems are extraordinarily robust to perturbation by mutations, recombination, and the environment. It has been proposed that this robustness might make them more evolvable. Robustness to mutation allows genetic variation to accumulate in a cryptic state. Switching mechanisms known as evolutionary capacitors mean that the amount of heritable phenotypic variation available can be correlated to the degree of stress and hence to the novelty of the environment and remaining potential for adaptation. There have been two somewhat separate literatures relating robustness to evolvability. One has focused on molecular phenotypes and new mutations, the other on morphology and cryptic genetic variation. Here we review both literatures, and show that the true distinction is whether recombination rates are high or low. In both cases, the evidence supports the claim that robustness promotes evolvability.

Subfields: Genetics, Molecular Biology, Sociology and Political Science

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Genetics

In Molecular Biology

In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

Evolvability as a function of purifying selection in TEM-1 β-lactamase. (2015, unknown): “…to genetic background or environmental factors, has been suggested to facilitate evolvability by permitting the accumulation of mutations that could be useful upon changes in selective pressure (de Visser et al., 2003; Kirschner and Gerhart, 1998, 2005; Masel and Trotter, 2010; Wagner, 2005a, b).”
Dynamic reconfiguration of human brain networks during learning (2010, background): “We next consider evolvability, which is most readily detected when the organism is under stress (29) or when acquiring new capacities such as during external training in our experiment.”
The Logic of Chance: The Nature and Origin of Biological Evolution (2011, background): “In the first decade of the twenty-first century, it has become a fashionable term and a subject of intense debate (Brookfield, 2009; Kirschner and Gerhart, 1998; Masel and Trotter, 2010; Radman, et al., 1999).”