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What is Natural Selection?01:32

What is Natural Selection?

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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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Organisms that are well-adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce. However, natural selection does not lead to perfectly adapted organisms. Several factors constrain natural selection.
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Speciation is the evolutionary process resulting in the formation of new, distinct species—groups of reproductively isolated populations.
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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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Types of Selection01:46

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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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The principle of natural selection posits that organisms better adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce. This principle is closely intertwined with mating preferences, a key aspect of sexual selection, which evolutionary psychologists believe is driven by instincts to propagate one's genes. Such instincts significantly influence mating behaviors and preferences between genders.
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Following the Dynamics of Structural Variants in Experimentally Evolved Populations
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Detecting natural selection in trait-trait coevolution.

Daohan Jiang1,2, Jianzhi Zhang3

  • 1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA. daohanji@usc.edu.

BMC Ecology and Evolution
|September 12, 2023
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Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Trait coevolution, or how traits change together, is driven by natural selection, not just mutations. This study reveals selection shapes trait relationships in yeast and flies, indicating mutation

Keywords:
FlyModularityMorphologyMutationPleiotropyYeast

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Quantitative Genetics
  • Molecular Biology

Background:

  • Phenotypic traits rarely evolve in isolation; they often exhibit coevolutionary patterns.
  • The underlying causes of trait-trait coevolution, whether pleiotropic mutations or natural selection, remain debated.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To elucidate the mechanistic basis of trait-trait coevolution.
  • To investigate the roles of pleiotropic mutation and multivariate natural selection in shaping phenotypic correlations.

Main Methods:

  • Analyzed 220 cell morphology traits in Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains and 24 wing morphology traits in Drosophilidae species.
  • Compared phenotypic correlations across evolutionary lineages with correlations observed in mutant lines (gene deletion/mutation accumulation).
  • Employed population genetic simulations to infer the role of multivariate selection.

Main Results:

  • Significant discrepancies were found between evolutionary and mutational correlations for numerous trait pairs.
  • Hundreds of trait pairs showed strengthened or reversed evolutionary correlations compared to mutational correlations, suggesting multivariate selection.
  • Evidence for selection favoring enhanced modularity was detected in yeast cell morphology traits.

Conclusions:

  • Trait-trait coevolution is demonstrably shaped by natural selection, acting on existing mutational variation.
  • The inherent pleiotropic structure of mutations may not be evolutionarily optimal.
  • Findings suggest natural selection actively influences trait relationships across different biological systems.