Study demonstrates evolutionary ‘fitness’ not the most important determinant of success
Feb 07, 2014 by Harry Dayantis
Excerpt: “…parallels between evolutionary dynamics and processes in the everyday physical world. In my group we have worked for many years on self-assembly; how individual units can form well-defined composite objects without any external control.”
My comment: Structures are nutrient-dependent; functions are pheromone-controlled, which helps to explain why ecological adaptations are biophysically constrained in species from microbes to man. Conserved molecular mechanisms of structure and function make mutation-driven evolution biologically impossible, which is why natural selection is now claimed to play a lesser role (e.g., that role was never ecologically validated).
Theorists will soon realize that species diversity arises from Darwin’s ‘conditions of life’ not from mutation-initiated natural selection, but obviously from ecological variation and adaptations.
See, for details: The Arrival of the Frequent: How Bias in Genotype-Phenotype Maps Can Steer Populations to Local Optima
Excerpt: When Hugo de Vries was advocating for the importance of mutations in evolution, he famously said “Natural selection may explain the survival of the fittest, but it cannot explain the arrival of the fittest” [2]. Here we argue that the fittest may never arrive. Instead evolutionary dynamics can be dominated by the “arrival of the frequent”.
See also: Roles of Mutation and Selection in Speciation: From Hugo de Vries to the Modern Genomic Era
Excerpt:”… we will not consider geographical and ecological factors because of space limitation. Our primary purpose is to clarify the roles of mutation and selection in the evolution of reproductive isolation…”
My comment: “arrival of the frequent” is nutrient-dependent, which explains why no experimental evidence suggests that evolution is mutation-driven. All experimental evidence has consistently proved that ecological variation results in ecological adaptations via conserved molecular mechanisms of nutrient-dependent pheromone-controlled reproduction, which are manifested in species diversity.
James V. Kohl detailedl how quantized energy-dependent microRNA biogenesis links the pheromone-controlled physiology of reproduction to biophysically constrained viral latency and healthy longevity. Links from what organisms eat to the enzyme-dependent metabolism of food also link metabolic networks to microRNA-mediated genetic networks in the context of RNA interference. Drug therapies alter RNA interference by altering cell type differentiation in all cells of all individuals of all species. For comparison, during the past 26 years, Kohl has detailed how the chemistry of protein folding is biophysically constrained at every level of biological organization by conserved molecular mechanisms.