Splendor and misery of adaptation, or the importance of neutral null for understanding evolution

被引：0
作者：
Eugene V. Koonin
机构：
[1] National Center for Biotechnology Information,
[2] National Library of Medicine,undefined
来源：
BMC Biology | / 14卷
关键词：
Effective Population Size; Mobile Genetic Element; Multicellular Eukaryote; Eukaryotic Evolution; Evolutionary Regime;
D O I：
暂无
中图分类号：
学科分类号：
摘要：
The study of any biological features, including genomic sequences, typically revolves around the question: what is this for? However, population genetic theory, combined with the data of comparative genomics, clearly indicates that such a “pan-adaptationist” approach is a fallacy. The proper question is: how has this sequence evolved? And the proper null hypothesis posits that it is a result of neutral evolution: that is, it survives by sheer chance provided that it is not deleterious enough to be efficiently purged by purifying selection. To claim adaptation, the neutral null has to be falsified. The adaptationist fallacy can be costly, inducing biologists to relentlessly seek function where there is none.
引用
收藏
相关论文
共 174 条
  • [31] Stamatoyannopoulos JA(2003)The origins of genome complexity Science 302 1401-9
  • [32] Ecker JR(2015)The bioenergetic costs of a gene Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 112 15690-21
  • [33] Bickmore WA(2010)The extinction dynamics of bacterial pseudogenes PLoS Genet 6 e1001050-68
  • [34] Barroso I(2015)Taking the pseudo out of pseudogenes Curr Opin Microbiol 23 102-23
  • [35] Pritchard JK(2006)The evolution of spliceosomal introns: patterns, puzzles and progress Nat Rev Genet 7 211-7
  • [36] Gilad Y(2012)Origin and evolution of spliceosomal introns Biol Direct 7 11-5
  • [37] Segal E(2012)The function of introns Front Genet 3 55-33
  • [38] Maher B(2006)The origins of eukaryotic gene structure Mol Biol Evol 23 450-37
  • [39] Pennisi E(2009)Intron-dominated genomes of early ancestors of eukaryotes J Hered 100 618-5
  • [40] Graur D(2011)Evolution of molecular error rates and the consequences for evolvability Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 108 1082-108
12345678910