Playing Darwin. Part A. Experimental evolution in Drosophila

In 2009 we celebrate Charles Darwin's second centenary, and 150 years since the publication of 'The Origin of Species'. After so many years, what has changed in the way we understand Evolution? Obviously we have now a full understanding of the mechanisms underlying heritability. Many molecular tools are available, allowing among other things to reconstruct more accurately the evolutionary history of species and use a comparative approach to infer evolutionary processes. But we can also study evolution in action. Such studies-Experimental Evolution-help us to characterize in detail the evolutionary processes and patterns as a function of environmental challenges, the previous history and present state of populations, and the interactions between such factors. We have now a wide variety of organisms that have been studied with this approach, exploring a diversity of potentialities, in biological characteristics and genetic tools, and covering a variety of evolutionary questions. In this short article I will illustrate the potentialities of Experimental Evolution, focusing in three studies in Drosophila. These and other studies of Experimental Evolution illustrate that Evolution is often local, involving complex patterns and processes, which lead both to specific adaptations and to biological diversity, as Darwin already stated clearly in 'The Origin of Species'.