Skip to content
Genomopedia The encyclopedia of Phase-Gated Equilibrium
Heterodox framework

Genomopedia presents Phase-Gated Equilibrium, a framework that departs from mainstream evolutionary biology. If you cite it in academic work, expect that work to be rejected. We publish it because we consider it more coherent and more accurate than the conventional account. About this site

Natural selection

From Genomopedia, the encyclopedia of Phase-Gated Equilibrium
Natural selection
Differential survival and reproduction of variants within a population
Conventional picture The creative force behind adaptation and innovation
PGE reading A real filter that specializes and tunes; not a source of coordinated innovation
Evidence status Unification
Related Adaptation, Mutation, Phase-Gated Equilibrium

Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of variants within a population. Under Phase-Gated Equilibrium it is a real and continuously operating filter that specializes lineages to niches and tunes existing systems, but not the source of innovations that require many components to change together.

Prototype sample text: this article will be rewritten under the Genomopedia editorial charter.

Observations

Main article: Methodology

The following are measured in living populations:

  • Heritable variants differ in survival and reproduction under given conditions, and their frequencies shift accordingly, as in antibiotic resistance in bacteria.
  • In Darwin's finches on Daphne Major, average beak depth shifted measurably across generations after droughts changed the available seeds.[1]
  • Many documented adaptive changes involve loss or reduction of an existing function.[2]

Conventional reading

Conventional reading Selection acting on random variation over long periods is held to account for both the fine-tuning of existing traits and the origin of new, integrated systems, including molecular machines and body plans.

Phase-Gated Equilibrium reading

The framework accepts the first half of the conventional reading and rejects the second. The changes selection is observed to make, shifts in frequency, tuning of existing traits and loss of function, belong to a different class from the coordinated multi-component changes that new architecture requires. Between functional protein folds there is no gradient for a hill-climbing process to follow. Unification

On this reading, new architecture comes from the deployment and activation of content already present, and selection then specializes the lineages that carry it.

Open tests

Open test Identify a documented case in which selection alone, in a living population, assembled a new function requiring several coordinated genetic changes, none of which was beneficial on its own.

References

  1. ↑ Grant, P. R.; Grant, B. R. (2002). "Unpredictable evolution in a 30-year study of Darwin's finches." Science 296: 707–711.
  2. ↑ Behe, M. J. (2019). Darwin Devolves. HarperOne. The claim is contested; see the discussion in the article on Adaptation.
This article adapts material from the Wikipedia article "Natural selection", licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. The text has been substantially modified; the list of original authors is in the article's history.
Categories: Articles adapted from Wikipedia