Experimental tests of the roles of adaptation, chance, and history in evolution.

The contributions of adaptation, chance, and history to the evolution of fitness and cell size were measured in two separate experiments using bacteria. In both experiments, populations propagated in identical environments achieved similar fitnesses, regardless of prior history or subsequent chance events. In contrast, the evolution of cell size, a trait weakly correlated with fitness, was more strongly influenced by history and chance.

[1]  July , 1890, The Hospital.

[2]  R. A. Fisher,et al.  The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection , 1931 .

[3]  M. Kimura.  Evolutionary Rate at the Molecular Level , 1968, Nature.

[4]  J. L. King,et al.  Non-Darwinian evolution. , 1969, Science.

[5]  M. Kimura,et al.  The neutral theory of molecular evolution. , 1983, Scientific American.

[6]  S. Gould,et al.  The spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian paradigm: a critique of the adaptationist programme , 1979, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological Sciences.

[7]  P. Alberch,et al.  EVOLUTION AND BIFURCATION OF DEVELOPMENTAL PROGRAMS , 1982, Evolution; international journal of organic evolution.

[8]  D. Hartl,et al.  Selection in chemostats. , 1983, Microbiological reviews.

[9]  E. Mayr.  How to Carry Out the Adaptationist Program? , 1983, The American Naturalist.

[10]  R. Peters.  The Ecological Implications of Body Size , 1983 .

[11]  K. Schmidt-Nielsen,et al.  Scaling, why is animal size so important? , 1984 .

[12]  Joe C. Campbell,et al.  Developmental Constraints and Evolution: A Perspective from the Mountain Lake Conference on Development and Evolution , 1985, The Quarterly Review of Biology.

[13]  S. Gould.  Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History , 1989 .

[14]  J. M. Smith,et al.  Optimality theory in evolutionary biology , 1990, Nature.

[15]  R. Lenski,et al.  Long-Term Experimental Evolution in Escherichia coli. I. Adaptation and Divergence During 2,000 Generations , 1991, The American Naturalist.

[16]  John E Mittler,et al.  EVOLUTIONARY ADAPTATION TO TEMPERATURE. I. FITNESS RESPONSES OF ESCHERICHIA COLI TO CHANGES IN ITS THERMAL ENVIRONMENT , 1992, Evolution; international journal of organic evolution.

[17]  Richard E. Lenski,et al.  Long-Term Experimental Evolution in Escherichia coli. II. Changes in Life-History Traits During Adaptation to a Seasonal Environment , 1994, The American Naturalist.