Discussion on Molecular Causes of Evolvability
![](https://sites.uclouvain.be/soumillionlab/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Evolvability_Journal-Club.jpg)
An interesting review on “The causes of evolvability and their evolution”, published by Payne and Wanger (2018), is discussed. Three major categories on the research of evolvability are discussed: phenotypic heterogeneity, mutational robustness and adaptive landscape topography:
![](https://sites.uclouvain.be/soumillionlab/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Slide2.jpg)
Phenotypic heterogeneity caused by non-genetic mechanisms are discussed:
![](https://sites.uclouvain.be/soumillionlab/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Slide3.jpg)
Robustness against mutations is allowing phenotypes to tolerate more genetic diversification without any change in final behaviour:
![](https://sites.uclouvain.be/soumillionlab/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Slide4.jpg)
The location of an individual or a population on an adaptive landscape, determine the degree of evolvability towards the highest adaptation:
![](https://sites.uclouvain.be/soumillionlab/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Slide5.jpg)
![](https://sites.uclouvain.be/soumillionlab/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Slide6.jpg)
Causes of evolvability highlighted here — phenotypic heterogeneity, mutational robustness and adaptive landscapes — are themselves subject to evolutionary change:
![](https://sites.uclouvain.be/soumillionlab/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Slide7.jpg)
Leave your comments about molecular causes of evolvability and its impact on the traditional dogma of “Evolution”: