One of the key questions asked within the field of evolutionary developmental biology (ev-devo) today is that of how mutation and selection work together to bring about evolutionary changes. Originally thought that the two mechanisms works independently of each other to bring about change through natural selection operating to the extent that it can and that mutations account for anything that selection doesn’t (Livnat. A 2013), this view is now been believed to be incorrect. By exploring the two essential key evolutionary mechanisms, mutation and natural selection, a deeper understanding of how evolution has shaped the world around us can be achieved.
Through the study of evo-devo, many examples of how mutations and natural selection work together to achieve evolutionary change can be found. One of the best examples of this is the well studied peppered moth, Biston betularia, that through rapid evolutionary change brought about by natural selection from a mutation in a changing environment, it increased its fitness value through camouflage (Cook, L & Saccheri, I 2013). Elaborating more on this, before the Industrial Revolution the moths with the highest fitness value were typically whitish in colour, …show more content…
This results suggest that an evolutionary change has presented itself on the antibiotic plates due to the original bacteria being susceptible to it. With the bacteria having a short generation time of 45 minutes, the chances that a mutation would arise with the resistant plasmid was highly likely. Through conjugation the bacteria would then be able to spread the positive mutation to the other bacteria and that would then increase the overall survival rate. This is also an example of how the DNA code of the gene responsible for the specific trait is inferred to be the result of natural selection working on mutations (Carroll
Through the study of evo-devo, many examples of how mutations and natural selection work together to achieve evolutionary change can be found. One of the best examples of this is the well studied peppered moth, Biston betularia, that through rapid evolutionary change brought about by natural selection from a mutation in a changing environment, it increased its fitness value through camouflage (Cook, L & Saccheri, I 2013). Elaborating more on this, before the Industrial Revolution the moths with the highest fitness value were typically whitish in colour, …show more content…
This results suggest that an evolutionary change has presented itself on the antibiotic plates due to the original bacteria being susceptible to it. With the bacteria having a short generation time of 45 minutes, the chances that a mutation would arise with the resistant plasmid was highly likely. Through conjugation the bacteria would then be able to spread the positive mutation to the other bacteria and that would then increase the overall survival rate. This is also an example of how the DNA code of the gene responsible for the specific trait is inferred to be the result of natural selection working on mutations (Carroll