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In evolutionary the field of experimental evolution is concerned with testing hypotheses and theories of evolution by use of controlled experiments. Evolution may be observed in the laboratory as populations adapt to new environmental conditions and/or change by such stochastic processes as random genetic drift. With modern molecular tools, it is possible to pinpoint the mutations that selection acts upon, what brought about the adaptations, and to find out how exactly these mutations work. Because of the large number of generations required for adaptation to occur, evolution experiments are typically carried out with microorganisms such as bacteria, yeast or viruses.[1][2] However, laboratory studies with rodents have shown that notable adaptations can occur within as few as 10-20 generations (see below) and experiments with wild guppies have observed adaptations within comparable numbers of generations.[3]

Evolution experiments throughout human history[]

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This Chihuahua mix and Great Dane show the wide range of dog breed sizes created using artificial selection.

Unwittingly, humans have carried out evolution experiments for as long as they have been domesticating plants and animals. Selective breeding of plants and animals has led to varieties that differ dramatically from their original wild-type ancestors. Examples are the large number of different dog breeds. The power of human breeding to create varieties with extreme differences from a single species was already recognized by Charles Darwin. In fact, he started out his book The Origin of Species with a chapter on variation in domestic animals. In this chapter, Darwin discussed in particular the pigeon. He wrote:

Altogether at least a score of pigeons might be chosen, which if shown to an ornithologist, and he were told that they were wild birds, would certainly, I think, be ranked by him as well-defined species. Moreover, I do not believe that any ornithologist would place the English carrier, the short-faced tumbler, the runt, the barb, pouter, and fantail in the same genus; more especially as in each of these breeds several truly-inherited sub-breeds, or species as he might have called them, could be shown him.

(...) I am fully convinced that the common opinion of naturalists is correct, namely, that all have descended from the rock-pigeon (Columba livia), including under this term several geographical races or sub-species, which differ from each other in the most trifling respects.

— Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species

Early experimental evolution[]

File:Dallinger Incubator J.R.Microscop.Soc.1887p193.png

Drawing of the incubator used by Dallinger in his evolution experiments

One of the first to carry out a controlled evolution experiment was William Dallinger. In the late 19th century, he cultivated small unicellular organisms in a custom-built incubator over a time period of seven years (1880-1886). Dallinger slowly increased the temperature of the incubator from an initial 60 °F up to 158 °F. The early cultures had shown clear signs of distress at a temperature of 73 °F, and were certainly not capable of surviving at 158 °F. The organisms Dallinger had in his incubator at the end of the experiment, on the other hand, were perfectly fine at 158 °F. However, these organisms would no longer grow at the initial 60 °F. Dallinger concluded that he had found evidence for Darwinian adaptation in his incubator, and that the organisms had adapted to live in a high-temperature environment. Unfortunately, Dallinger's incubator was accidentally destroyed in 1886, and Dallinger could not continue this line of research.

Modern experimental evolution[]

From the 1880s to 1980, experimental evolution was intermittently practiced by a variety of evolutionary biologists, including the highly influential Theodosius Dobzhansky. Like other experimental research in evolutionary biology during this period, much of this work lacked extensive replication and was carried out only for relatively short periods of evolutionary time.

But by 1980, a variety of evolutionary biologists realized that the key to successful experimentation lay in extensive parallel replication of evolving lineages as well as a larger number of generations of selection. One of the first of a new wave of experiments using this strategy was the laboratory "evolutionary radiation" of Drosophila melanogaster populations that Michael R. Rose started in February, 1980.[4] This system started with ten populations, five cultured at later ages, and five cultured at early ages. Since then more than 200 different populations have been created in this laboratory radiation, with selection targeting multiple characters. Some of these highly differentiated populations have also been selected "backward" or "in reverse," by returning experimental populations to their ancestral culture regime. Hundreds of people have worked with these populations over the better part of three decades. Much of this work is summarized in the papers collected in the book Methuselah Flies, listed below.

Lenski's long-term evolution experiment with Escherichia coli[]

On February 15, 1988, Richard Lenski started a long-term evolution experiment with the bacterium E. coli. The experiment continues to this day, and is by now probably the largest controlled evolution experiment ever undertaken. Since the inception of the experiment, the bacteria have grown for more than 40,000 generations. Lenski and colleagues regularly publish updates on the status of the experiments.

Garland's long-term experiment with laboratory house mice[]

In 1993, Theodore Garland, Jr. and colleagues started a long-term experiment that involves selective breeding for high voluntary activity levels on running wheels.[5] This experiment also continues to this day (> 50 generations). Mice from the four replicate "High Runner" lines evolved to run 3 times as many running-wheel revolutions per day as compared with the four unselected control mice groups, mainly by running faster rather than for the control mice for more minutes/day.

The HR mice exhibit an elevated maximal aerobic capacity when tested on a motorized treadmill and a variety of other traits that appear to be adaptations that facilitate high levels of sustained endurance running (e.g., larger hearts, more symmetrical hindlimb bones). They also exhibit alterations in motivation and the reward system of the brain. Pharmacological studies point to alterations in dopamine function and the endocannabinoid system.[6] The High Runner lines have been proposed as a model to study human attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and administration of Ritalin reduces their wheel running approximately to the levels of Control mice. Click here for a mouse wheel running video.

See also[]


References[]

  1. Buckling A, Craig Maclean R, Brockhurst MA, Colegrave N (February 2009). The Beagle in a bottle. Nature 457 (7231): 824–9.
  2. Elena SF, Lenski RE (June 2003). Evolution experiments with microorganisms: the dynamics and genetic bases of adaptation. Nat. Rev. Genet. 4 (6): 457–69.
  3. Reznick, D. N., F. H. Shaw, F. H. Rodd, and R. G. Shaw (1997). Evaluation of the rate of evolution in natural populations of guppies (Poecilia reticulata). Science 275: 1934–1937.
  4. Rose, M. R. (1984). Artificial selection on a fitness component in Drosophila melanogaster. Evolution 38: 516–526.
  5. Artificial Selection for Increased Wheel-Running Behavior in House Mice, John G. Swallow, Patrick A. Carter, and Theodore Garland, Jr, Behavior Genetics, Vol. 28, No. 3, 1998
  6. Keeney, B. K., D. A. Raichlen, T. H. Meek, R. S. Wijeratne, K. M. Middleton, G. L. Gerdeman, and T. Garland, Jr. (2008). Differential response to a selective cannabinoid receptor antagonist (SR141716: rimonabant) in female mice from lines selectively bred for high voluntary wheel-running behavior. Behavioural Pharmacology 19: 812–820.

Further reading[]

  • Bennett, A. F. (2003). Experimental evolution and the Krogh Principle: generating biological novelty for functional and genetic analyses. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 76: 1–11.
  • Dallinger, W. H. 1887. The president's address. J. Roy. Microscop. Soc., 185-199.
  • Elena, S. F., and R. E. Lenski. 2003. Evolution experiments with microorganisms: the dynamics and genetic bases of adaptation. Nature Reviews Genetics 4: 457-469.
  • Garland, T., Jr. 2003. Selection experiments: an under-utilized tool in biomechanics and organismal biology. Pages 23-56 in V. L. Bels, J.-P. Gasc, A. Casinos, eds. Vertebrate biomechanics and evolution. BIOS Scientific Publishers, Oxford, U.K. PDF
  • Garland, T., Jr., and M. R. Rose, eds. 2009. Experimental evolution: concepts, methods, and applications of selection experiments. University of California Press, Berkeley, California. PDF of Table of Contents
  • Gibbs, A. G. 1999. Laboratory selection for the comparative physiologist. Journal of Experimental Biology 202: 2709-2718.
  • Lenski, R. E. 2004. Phenotypic and genomic evolution during a 20,000-generation experiment with the bacterium Escherichia coli. Plant Breeding Reviews 24: 225-265.
  • Lenski, R. E., M. R. Rose, S. C. Simpson, and S. C. Tadler. 1991. Long-term experimental evolution in Escherichia coli. I. Adaptation and divergence during 2,000 generations. American Naturalist 138: 1315-1341.
  • McKenzie, J. A., and P. Batterham. 1994. The genetic, molecular and phenotypic consequences of selection for insecticide resistance. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 9: 166-169.
  • Reznick, D. N., M. J. Bryant, D. Roff, C. K. Ghalambor, and D. E. Ghalambor. 2004. Effect of extrinsic mortality on the evolution of senescence in guppies. Nature 431: 1095-1099.
  • Rose, M. R., H. B. Passananti, and M. Matos, eds. 2004. Methuselah flies: A case study in the evolution of aging. World Scientific Publishing, Singapore.
  • Swallow, J. G., and T. Garland, Jr. 2005. Selection experiments as a tool in evolutionary and comparative physiology: insights into complex traits - An introduction to the symposium. Integrative and Comparative Biology 45: 387-390. PDF

External links[]



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