New Type of Genetic Variation Could Strengthen Natural Selection

Scanning electrograph image of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. (Credit: Image courtesy of NASA)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Feb. 18, 2010) — The unexpected discovery of a new type of genetic variation suggests that natural selection -- the force that drives evolution -- is both more powerful and more complex than scientists have thought.

"We have discovered that natural selection can act not only on whole organisms and individual genes, but also on gene networks," says Antonis Rokas, assistant professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt University and senior author of the paper reporting the discovery that was published in the February 18 issue of the journal Nature.

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