Researchers publish a new report in the journal <i>New Phytologist</i> that expands science’s understanding of natural selection in the face of another evolutionary mechanism called genetic constraint.
Natural selection can slow evolution, maintain similarities across generations sciencedaily.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sciencedaily.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
New research from Michigan State University suggests that natural selection, famous for rewarding advantageous differences in organisms, can also preserve similarities. Reporting in the journals New Phytologist and Evolution, the researchers worked with a plant called wild radish and its stamens, or pollen-producing parts, two of which are short and four are long. Roughly 55 million years ago, wild radish ancestors had stamens of equal length. The team selectively bred or artificially selected wild radish to reduce the difference in stamen length and return the plant to a more ancestral look. This shows that today’s wild radish and, likely, its family members still have the requisite genetic variability to evolve, but natural selection is preserving its different stamen lengths.
New research suggests natural selection can slow evolution, maintain similarities across generations phys.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from phys.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.