Current research in evolutionary biology

Current research in evolutionary biology covers diverse topics, as should be expected given the centrality of evolution to understanding biology. Modern evolutionary biology incorporates ideas from diverse areas of science, such as molecular genetics and even computer science.

First, some fields of evolutionary research try to explain phenomena that were poorly accounted for by the work of the modern evolutionary synthesis. These phenomena include speciation,^[1] the evolution of sexual reproduction,^[2] the evolution of cooperation, the evolution of ageing, and evolvability.^[3]

Second, biologists ask the most straightforward evolutionary question: "what happened and when?". This includes fields such as paleobiology, as well as systematics and phylogenetics.

Third, the modern evolutionary synthesis was devised at a time when nobody understood the molecular basis of genes. Today, evolutionary biologists try to determine the genetic architecture of interesting evolutionary phenomena such as adaptation and speciation. They seek answers to questions such as how many genes are involved, how large are the effects of each gene, to what extent are the effects of different genes interdependent, what sort of function do the genes involved tend to have, and what sort of changes tend to happen to them (e.g. point mutations vs. gene duplication or even genome duplication). Evolutionary biologists try to reconcile the high heritability seen in twin studies with the difficulty in finding which genes are responsible for this heritability using genome-wide association studies.^[4]

One challenge in studying genetic architecture is that the classical population genetics that catalyzed the modern evolutionary synthesis needs to be updated to take into account modern molecular knowledge. This requires a great deal of mathematical development, in order to relate DNA sequence data to evolutionary theory as part of a theory of molecular evolution. For example, biologists try to infer which genes have been under strong selection by detecting selective sweeps.^[5]

Fourth, the modern evolutionary synthesis involved agreement about which forces contribute to evolution, but not about their relative importance.^[6] Current research seeks to determine this. Evolutionary forces include natural selection, sexual selection, genetic drift, genetic draft, developmental constraints, mutation bias and biogeography.

An evolutionary approach is also key to much current research in biology that does not set out to study evolution per se, especially in organismal biology and ecology. For example, evolutionary thinking is key to life history theory. Annotation of genes and their function relies heavily on comparative, i.e. evolutionary, approaches. The field of evo-devo investigates how developmental processes work by using the comparative method to determine how they evolved.

References

1. ^ Wiens JJ (2004). "What is speciation and how should we study it?". American Naturalist 163 (6): 914–923. doi:10.1086/386552. JSTOR 10. 
2. ^ Otto SP (2009). "The evolutionary enigma of sex". American Naturalist 174 (s1): S1-S14. doi:10.1086/599084. 
3. ^ Jesse Love Hendrikse, Trish Elizabeth Parsons, Benedikt Hallgrímsson (2007). "Evolvability as the proper focus of evolutionary developmental biology". Evolution & Development 9 (4): 393–401. doi:10.1111/j.1525-142X.2007.00176.x. 
4. ^ Manolio TA, Collins FS, Cox NJ, Goldstein DB, Hindorff LA, Hunter DJ, McCarthy MI, Ramos EM, Cardon LR, Chakravarti A , Cho JH, Guttmacher AE, Kong A, Kruglyak L, Mardis E, Rotimi CN, Slatkin M, Valle D, Whittemore AS, Boehnke M, Clark AG, Eichler EE, Gibson G, Haines JL, Mackay TFC, McCarroll SA , Visscher PM (2009). "Finding the missing heritability of complex diseases". Nature 461 (7265): 747–753. doi:10.1038/nature08494. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v461/n7265/full/nature08494.html. 
5. ^ Sabeti PC, Reich DE, Higgins JM, Levine HZP, Richter DJ, Schaffner SF, Gabriel SB, Platko JV, Patterson NJ, McDonald GJ, Ackerman HC, Campbell SJ, Altshuler D, Cooper R, Kwiatkowski D, Ward R, Lander ES (2002). "Detecting recent positive selection in the human genome from haplotype structure". Nature 419 (6909): 832–837. doi:10.1038/nature01140. PMID 12397357. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v419/n6909/full/nature01140.html. 
6. ^ Provine WB (1988). "Progress in evolution and meaning in life". Evolutionary progress. University of Chicago Press. pp. 49–79.