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Daily Transfers, Archiving Populations, and Measuring Fitness in the Long-Term Evolution Experiment with Escherichia coli

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Evolutionary constraint and ecological consequences.

Douglas J Futuyma¹

¹Department of Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794, USA. futuyma@life.bio.sunysb.edu

Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution

|July 28, 2010

Summary

Evolutionary biology increasingly recognizes sluggish evolution and adaptation failures. Ephemeral divergence, due to interbreeding, may explain organism-wide stasis better than genetic constraints alone.

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Area of Science:

Evolutionary Biology
Community Ecology

Background:

A significant shift in evolutionary biology is the recognition of sluggish evolution and adaptation failures, despite abundant genetic variation.
This phenomenon appears paradoxical given instances of rapid local adaptation.

Purpose of the Study:

To review hypotheses of evolutionary constraint (or restraint).
To propose that organism-wide stasis may be explained by ephemeral divergence, where population divergence is short-lived due to interbreeding.

Main Methods:

Review of hypotheses concerning evolutionary constraint.
Conceptual synthesis of existing theories and paleontological observations.

Main Results:

Constraints on individual characters may stem from genetic variation structure or paucity.
Organism-wide stasis is potentially explained by ephemeral divergence, where interbreeding prevents sustained population divergence.

Conclusions:

Acknowledging evolutionary constraints transforms community ecology.
Phylogenetic niche conservatism and deep evolutionary history strongly influence ecological communities.