Genetic assimilation

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Genetic assimilation is a term first used by Conrad Hal Waddington in 1953 in evolutionary biology . What is meant is "the genetic fixation of an adaptive plastic response in the genome ". If the phenotypic plasticity decreases, Gilbert speaks of genetic assimilation, if it increases, of genetic accommodation.

Genetic assimilation is preceded by phenotypic variation in development ( ontogenesis ). This is followed by epigenetic assimilation, then genetic assimilation. In connection with the emergence of phenotypic innovations, Müller / Newman speak of the fact that the processes must be understood as a process chain that has to be run through several times: "Genetic integration stabilizes and increasingly determines the generative process, which results in an ever closer mapping between genotype and phenotype"

Proponents of the Extended Synthesis of the Theory of Evolution see Waddington's genetic assimilation as a forerunner of their own theories, and also see Iwan Iwanowitsch Schmalhausen as an early proponent of genetic assimilation.

criticism

In a joint statement against the term initiative "Extended Evolutionary Synthesis, EES" ( Extended Synthesis in Evolution Theory ), seven biologists published the following assessment of the term genetic assimilation in 2014 :

"Over 50 years ago, developmental biologist Conrad Waddington described a process that he called genetic assimilation. New mutations can convert one plastic property into another, which then develops without the specific cause. Outside of the laboratory, there are only a few for this Examples. Whether this is due to the fact that this phenomenon has not yet been seriously considered, or whether it is a real rarity in nature, we can only find out through further investigation. "

literature

  • Scott F. Gilbert, David Epel: Ecological developmental biology - integrating epigenetics, medicine, and evolution. Sinauer, 2009, ISBN 978-0-87893-299-3 , pp. 377–379: Genetic assimilation in the laboratory, pp. 379–382: Genetic assimilation in nature, box p. 380: Threshold value effect of genetic assimilation, box p. 383: Epigenetic Assimilation with Hsp90.
  • Eva Jablonka, Marion J. Lamb: Transgenerational Epigenetic Inheritance. In: Gerd Müller, Masasimo Pigliucci (Ed.): Evolution - the Extended Synthesis. MIT Press, 2010, p. 164 f.
  • Gerd Müller, Stuart A. Newman: The Innovation Triad: An EvoDevo Agenda. In: Journal of Experimental Zoology B (Molecular and Developmental Evolution). Volume 304, No. 6, 2005, pp. 487-503.
  • Conrad Hal Waddington: Genetic Assimilation of an Acquired Character. In: evolution. Volume 7, No. 2, 1953, pp. 118-126.
  • Mary Jane West-Eberhard: Development Plasticity and Evolution. Oxford University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-19-512235-6 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Conrad Hal Waddington: Genetic Assimilation of an Acquired Character. In: evolution. Volume 7, No. 2, 1953, pp. 118-126.
  2. ↑ SF Gilbert, D. Epel: Ecological biology developmental. 2009, p. 447.
  3. ↑ SF Gilbert, D. Epel: Ecological biology developmental. 2009, p. 384.
  4. ^ Gerd Müller, Stuart A. Newman: The Innovation Triad: An EvoDevo Agenda. In: Journal of Experimental Zoology B (Molecular and Developmental Evolution). Volume 304, No. 6, 2005, p. 494.
  5. ↑ M. Pigliucci, CJ Murren, CD Schlichting: Phenotypic plasticity and evolution by genetic assimilation. In: The Journal of experimental biology. Volume 209, June 2006, pp. 2362-2367, doi: 10.1242 / jeb.02070 . PMID 16731812 (free full text) (review).
  6. ↑ K. Laland, T. Uller, M. Feldman, K. Sterelny, GB Müller, A. Moczek, E. Jablonka, J. Odling-Smee, GA Wray, HE Hoekstra, DJ Futuyma, RE Lenski, TF Mackay, D Schluter, JE Strassmann: Does evolutionary theory need a rethink? In: Nature. Volume 514, Number 7521, October 2014, ISSN  1476-4687 , pp. 161-164, doi: 10.1038 / 514161a . PMID 25297418 . German translation