Little Tom J, Colegrave Nick
University of Edinburgh, Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
PLoS Biol. 2016 Jul 26;14(7):e1002525. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1002525. eCollection 2016 Jul.
It is important for biology to understand if observations made in highly reductionist laboratory settings generalise to harsh and noisy natural environments in which genetic variation is sorted to produce adaptation. But what do we learn by studying, in the laboratory, a genetically diverse population that mirrors the wild? What is the best design for studying genetic variation? When should we consider it at all? The right experimental approach depends on what you want to know.
对于生物学来说，了解在高度简化的实验室环境中所做的观察是否能推广到恶劣且嘈杂的自然环境中是很重要的，在自然环境中，基因变异经过筛选以产生适应性。但是，通过在实验室中研究一个反映野生群体的基因多样化群体，我们能学到什么呢？研究基因变异的最佳设计是什么？我们究竟何时应该考虑它呢？正确的实验方法取决于你想了解什么。
