Evolution, phenotypic

Santisteban, I., Arredondo-Vega, F. X., Kelly, S., Loubser, M., Meydan, N Roifman, C Howell, P. L Bowen, T., Weinberg, K. I., Schroeder, M. L and Hershfield, M. S., Three new adenosine deaminase mutations that define a splicing enhancer and cause severe and partial phenotypes Implications for evolution of a CpG hotspot and expression of a transduced ADAcDNA. Hum. Mol. Genet. 4,2081-2087 (1995). 

Note that even evolutionary studies have moved to the molecular level over the last generation (mainly because this is the level at which genetics is now practiced). Using these studies to understand phenotypic evolution will require a molecular or, at least, a physical account of development. 

Sarkar, S. (2002), From the Reaktionsnorm to the Evolution of Adaptive Plasticity A Historical Sketch, 1909-1999, in T. DeWitt and S. M. Scheiner (eds.) Phenotypic Plasticity Functional and Conceptual Approaches, Oxford University Press, New York. 

Schlichting, C. D. and Pigliucci, M. (1998), Phenotypic Evolution A Reaction Norm Perspective, Sinauer, Sunderland, MA. 

The evolution of parasitic phenotypes in nematodes is a topic of active practical and theoretical research (Skorping el al., 1991 Read and Skorping, 1995a,b). Understanding the mode and tempo of acquisition of particular phenotypes associated with succesful parasitism will permit fuller appreciation of the evolutionary constraints experienced by organisms adapting to new hosts. 

Fig. 1.5 Schematic representation of the evolution of life from its precursors, on the basis of the definition of life given by the authors. If bioenergetic mechanisms have developed via autonomous systems, the thermodynamic basis for the beginning of the archiving of information, and thus for a one-polymer world such as the RNA world , has been set up. Several models for this transition have been discussed. This phase of development is possibly the starting point for the process of Darwinian evolution (with reproduction, variation and heredity), but still without any separation between genotype and phenotype. According to the authors definition, life begins in exactly that moment when the genetic code comes into play, i.e., in the transition from a one-polymer world to a two-polymer world . The last phase, open-ended evolution, then follows. After Ruiz-Mirazo et al. (2004)...

Palmer, C., Watts, R.A., Houck, L.D., Picard, A.L. and Arnold, SJ. (2007) Evolutionary replacement of pheromone components in a salamander signaling complex more evidence for phenotypic-molecular decoupling. Evolution 61, 202-215. 

Craig, C. L. (2003). Spiderwebs and silks Tracing evolution from molecules to genes to phenotypes. Oxford University Press, New York. 

A powerful approach to elucidating the ecology and evolution of any phenotypic trait can come from an explicit manipulation of genetic differences in the trait among populations of a single species, a research focus of evolutionary ecologists... 

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