EXPERIMENTAL EVOLUTION, LOSS-OF-FUNCTION MUTATIONS, AND THE FIRST RULE OF ADAPTIVE EVOLUTION

Adaptive evolution can cause a species to gain lose or modify a function therefore, it is of basic interest to determine whether any of these modes dominates the evolutionary process under particular circumstances Because mutation occurs at the molecular level it is necessary to examine the molecular changes produced by the underlying mutation in order to assess whether a given adaptation is best considered as a gain loss or modification of function Although that was once impossible the advance of molecular biology in the past half century has made it feasible In this paper I review molecular changes underlying some adaptations with a particular emphasis on evolutionary experiments with microbes conducted over the past four decades I show that by far the most common adaptive changes seen in those examples are due to the loss or modification of a pre existing molecular function and I discuss the possible reasons for the prominence of such mutations