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When recombination is low, mutator alleles may still sometimes hitchhike on the success of adaptive mutations that they cause. In this case, selection can take place at the level of the lineage. [32] This may explain why mutators are often seen during experimental evolution of microbes. Mutator alleles can also evolve more easily when they only ...
Dual inheritance theory (DIT), also known as gene–culture coevolution or biocultural evolution, [1] was developed in the 1960s through early 1980s to explain how human behavior is a product of two different and interacting evolutionary processes: genetic evolution and cultural evolution.
Neomorphic mutations are a part of the gain-of-function mutations and are characterized by the control of new protein product synthesis. The newly synthesized gene normally contains a novel gene expression or molecular function. The result of the neomorphic mutation is the gene where the mutation occurs has a complete change in function. [56]
Contemporary biologists accept that mutation and selection both play roles in evolution; the mainstream view is that while mutation supplies material for selection in the form of variation, all non-random outcomes are caused by natural selection. [59]
In biology, evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological organisms over generations due to natural selection, mutation, gene flow, and genetic drift. Also known as descent with modification .
Also, rates of epigenetic mutations, such as DNA methylation, are much higher than rates of mutations transmitted genetically [12] and are easily reversed. [13] This provides a way for variation within a species to rapidly increase, in times of stress, providing opportunity for adaptation to newly arising selection pressures.
Some nonlethal regulatory mutations occur in HOX genes in humans, which can result in a cervical rib [95] or polydactyly, an increase in the number of fingers or toes. [96] When such mutations result in a higher fitness, natural selection favours these phenotypes and the novel trait spreads in the population.
Evolution by gene duplication is an event by which a gene or part of a gene can have two identical copies that can not be distinguished from each other. This phenomenon is understood to be an important source of novelty in evolution, providing for an expanded repertoire of molecular activities.