ByGrrlScientist,
Senior Contributor.
Even a single gene, reshuffled or regulated in new ways, can fuel repeated bursts of evolutionary innovation, according to a recent study of wheatear birds.
A study was recently published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal, Science, reporting that evolutionary innovation (which can lead to speciation) can occur rapidly, either by genetic reshuffling a single gene or by exposing it to new regulation. This goes against conventional wisdom, known as “phyletic gradualism,” where evolution is thought to be a slow and gradual process that relies on the accumulation of genetic mutations over time that eventually give rise to new physical or behavioral variations.
This recent study instead finds that new regulation or reshuffling of existing genes, either within an existing species or through hybridization between species, can generate new physical or behavioral traits very quickly, even within a single generation. This model of evolution reveals that evolutionary change can occur suddenly, after long periods with little to no visible change. Known as “punctuated equilibrium,” this hypothesis was originally proposed by Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge in 1972 (PDF).
