Journal
SYMMETRY-BASEL
Volume 2, Issue 2, Pages 466-540Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/sym2020466
Keywords
continuous symmetry measures; developmental instability; Evolution Canyon; fitness; genomic coadaptation; landmark methods; stress
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Funding
- Berry College
- Ancell-Teicher Research Foundation for Genetics and Molecular Evolution
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Fluctuating asymmetry consists of random deviations from perfect symmetry in populations of organisms. It is a measure of developmental noise, which reflects a population's average state of adaptation and coadaptation. Moreover, it increases under both environmental and genetic stress, though responses are often inconsistent. Researchers base studies of fluctuating asymmetry upon deviations from bilateral, radial, rotational, dihedral, translational, helical, and fractal symmetries. Here, we review old and new methods of measuring fluctuating asymmetry, including measures of dispersion, landmark methods for shape asymmetry, and continuous symmetry measures. We also review the theory, developmental origins, and applications of fluctuating asymmetry, and attempt to explain conflicting results. In the process, we present examples from the literature, and from our own research at Evolution Canyon and elsewhere.
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