ScienceDaily: “New Wrinkle in Evolution?”
For generations evolution has been assumed to proceed randomly — random mutations of the genome just might lead to a beneficial adaptation. Of course, most of the time mutations make no difference at all, and if they do, are usually harmful. Sitting around waiting for random mistakes to occur seems an inefficient way to adapt to the environment, but considering mechanisms whereby evolution might proactively “search” for useful change has smacked of Lamarck. Over the past few years, though, studies have indicated an intriguing possibility: that organisms may have ways of influencing their own ability to change, and thus “influence” their evolution to a certain extent. The clues are still scarce, and our understanding of everything that affects the genome is meager. A new study from Princeton, however, gives us another piece of evidence to work with. Researchers have found proteins present in most organisms which are able to nudge their own evolution along:
“The discovery answers an age-old question that has puzzled biologists since the time of Darwin: How can organisms be so exquisitely complex, if evolution is completely random, operating like a ‘blind watchmaker’?” said Chakrabarti, an associate research scholar in the Department of Chemistry at Princeton. “Our new theory extends Darwin’s model, demonstrating how organisms can subtly direct aspects of their own evolution to create order out of randomness.”
