Commentary: When does understanding phenotypic evolution require identification of the underlying genes?
Adaptive evolution is fundamentally a genetic process. Over the past three decades, characterizing the genes underlying adaptive phenotypic change has revealed many important aspects of evolutionary change. At the same time, natural selection is often fundamentally an ecological process that can often be studied without identifying the genes underlying the variation on which it acts. This duality has given rise to disagreement about whether, and under what circumstances, it is necessary to identify specific genes associated with phenotypic change. This issue is of practical concern, especially for researchers who study nonmodel organisms, because of the often enormous cost and labor required to "go for the genes." We here consider a number of situations and questions commonly addressed by researchers. Our conclusion is that although gene identification can be crucial for answering some questions, there are others for which definitive answers can be obtained without finding underlying genes. It should thus not be assumed that considerations of "empirical completeness" dictate that gene identification is always desirable.
Duke Scholars
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Related Subject Headings
- Selection, Genetic
- Genetic Variation
- Evolutionary Biology
- Biological Evolution
- 3104 Evolutionary biology
- 3103 Ecology
- 0603 Evolutionary Biology
- 0602 Ecology
Citation
Published In
DOI
EISSN
ISSN
Publication Date
Volume
Issue
Start / End Page
Related Subject Headings
- Selection, Genetic
- Genetic Variation
- Evolutionary Biology
- Biological Evolution
- 3104 Evolutionary biology
- 3103 Ecology
- 0603 Evolutionary Biology
- 0602 Ecology