Abstract: “Mutations drive evolution and were assumed to occur by chance: constantly, gradually, roughly uniformly in genomes, and without regard to environmental inputs, but this view is being revised by discoveries of molecular mechanisms of mutation in bacteria, now translated across the tree of life. These mechanisms reveal a picture of highly regulated mutagenesis, up-regulated temporally by stress responses and activated when cells/organisms are maladapted to their environments—when stressed—potentially accelerating adaptation. Mutation is also nonrandom in genomic space, with multiple simultaneous mutations falling in local clusters, which may allow concerted evolution—the multiple changes needed to adapt protein functions and protein machines encoded by linked genes. Molecular mechanisms of stress-inducible mutation change ideas about evolution and suggest different ways to model and address cancer development, infectious disease, and evolution generally.” (open access) – Fitzgerald DM, Rosenberg SM (2019) What is mutation? A chapter in the series: How microbes “jeopardize”the modern synthesis. PloS Genet 15(4): e1007995. https://doi.org/10.1371/ journal.pgen.1007995 More.
Maybe it’s kind of like admitting to guilt. How is it all organized that way?
Hasn’t Lee Spetner been saying this for ages? See The Evolution Revolution.
A scout suggests they should call it Exponential Serendipity, to avoid any suggestion of design.
See also: Pre-existing genes a more likely cause of herbicide resistance than new mutations. It sounds as though the necessary evolution occurred a long time ago and that a Darwinian process just isn’t happening now. But they are not likely allowed to discuss it that way.
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