Canalization and adaptation – or – the fitness landscape considered harmful?

24 June 2016

John Reinitz
Departments of Statistics, Ecology & Evolution; Molecular Genetics & Cell Biology
University of Chicago

Abstract

In 1942, Waddington proposed that the adaptation of organisms to their environment in the course of evolution is enhanced by reducing the phenotypic effects of small changes in genotype. Because this idea is strongly counterintuitive, others have suggested the opposite. We investigate this problem numerically in a simple model that represents genotype, phenotype, mutation, and population dynamics in a changing environment. I report on how the rate of adaptation changes in response to the level of phenotypic buffering.

current theory lunch schedule