Pigliucci Massimo
Department of Ecology & Evolution, Stony Brook University, 650 Life Science Building, Stony Brook, New York 11794, USA.
Nat Rev Genet. 2008 Jan;9(1):75-82. doi: 10.1038/nrg2278.
In recent years, biologists have increasingly been asking whether the ability to evolve--the evolvability--of biological systems, itself evolves, and whether this phenomenon is the result of natural selection or a by-product of other evolutionary processes. The concept of evolvability, and the increasing theoretical and empirical literature that refers to it, may constitute one of several pillars on which an extended evolutionary synthesis will take shape during the next few years, although much work remains to be done on how evolvability comes about.
近年来,生物学家越来越多地探讨生物系统的进化能力——即可进化性——自身是否会进化,以及这种现象是自然选择的结果还是其他进化过程的副产品。可进化性这一概念,以及越来越多与之相关的理论和实证文献,可能构成未来几年扩展进化综合理论得以形成的几个支柱之一,尽管在可进化性如何产生方面仍有许多工作要做。