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Related Concept Videos

Natural Selection and Adaptation01:15

Natural Selection and Adaptation

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Natural selection, a fundamental concept in evolutionary biology, is the mechanism by which evolution is driven, favoring organisms that are best adapted to their environments. This process enhances their chances of survival and reproduction. Adaptation, a key outcome of this process, involves genetic modifications that optimize an organism's functionality under specific environmental challenges, such as extreme cold or thinner air at high altitudes.
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Biology is a natural science that studies life and living organisms, including their structure, function, development, interactions, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. The field's scope is extensive and divided into several specialized disciplines, such as anatomy, physiology, ethology, genetics, and many more. All living things share a few key traits, including cellular organization, heritable genetic material and the ability to adapt/evolve, metabolism to regulate energy needs, the...
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Among the three main modes of HGT—transformation, conjugation, and transduction—transduction is unique in that it is mediated by bacteriophages, or bacterial viruses.Transduction occurs in two ways. Generalized transduction occurs during the lytic cycle of a bacteriophage infection. In this process, bacteriophages infect bacterial cells, replicate within them, and ultimately cause cell lysis, releasing newly assembled virions. Occasionally, random fragments of the bacterial genome...
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Natural selection influences the frequencies of particular alleles and phenotypes within populations in several different ways. Primarily, natural selection can be directional, stabilizing, or disruptive. Directional selection favors one extreme trait and shifts the population towards that phenotype while selecting against individuals displaying alternate traits. Stabilizing selection favors an intermediate trait with a narrow range of variation. Deviation from the optimal phenotype towards an...
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Natural selection is an evolutionary process in which individuals with survival-promoting traits reproduce at higher rates. These favorable traits become more common within a population or species. Naturally selected traits initially arise via random genetic mutations. In order for selection to occur, there must be variation within a population, the trait controlling the variation must be heritable, and there must be an evolutionary advantage for variation in the trait.
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Related Experiment Video

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Visualizing Visual Adaptation
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Adaption, neutrality and life-course diversity.

Ulrich Karl Steiner1, Shripad Tuljapurkar2

  • 1Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

Ecology Letters
|February 9, 2023
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Selection acts on individual fitness differences. This study finds that non-genetic, non-environmental variation is largely neutral, with no clear link to population growth, suggesting more research is needed.

Keywords:
COMADRECOMPADREdemographic stochasticityindividual heterogeneitylife-history evolutionmatrix population modelsphenotypic variancesensitivity

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Population genetics
  • Phenotypic variation

Background:

  • Evolutionary theory posits selection reduces heterogeneity in constant environments.
  • However, substantial non-genetic and non-environmental phenotypic variability is observed.
  • This study investigates the relationship between selection pressure and this variability.

Discussion:

  • Analysis of structured population models across diverse species indicates non-genetic, non-environmental variation is typically neutral.
  • Significant inter-species and intra-species variation exists.
  • Mean patterns suggest near-neutral evolution of life-course variability.

Key Insights:

  • Phenotypic variability is not consistently selected for or against.
  • Greater life-course diversity in populations does not generally correlate with altered population growth rates.
  • The evolution and maintenance of non-genetic, non-environmental variation remain poorly understood.

Outlook:

  • Further research is required to fully comprehend the evolutionary dynamics of non-genetic, non-environmental variation.
  • Exploring the mechanisms maintaining this variability is crucial.
  • Future studies should focus on diverse species and populations to uncover broader patterns.