Experimental Evolution: Concepts, Methods, and Applications of Selection Experiments
Garland, Jr., T & MR Rose (eds) (2009) Experimental Evolution: Concepts, Methods, and Applications of Selection Experiments. University of California Press. 730 pp. ISBN 978-0-520-24766-6 (cloth), 978-0-520-26180-8 (paper).
Contributors:
AF Bennett, AM Dean, DE Dykhuizen, DJ Emlen, S Estes, DJ Fairbairn, SE Forde, WA Frankino, JD Fry, DJ Futuyma, T Garland, Jr., E Gefen, AG Gibbs, LG Harshman, JP Hayes, RB Huey, DJ Irschick, CM Jessup, TJ Kawecki, B Kerr, P Koteja, M Matos, RC McBride, LD Mueller, TH Oakley, CL Rauser, D Reznick, JS Rhodes, DA Roff, MR Rose, F Rosenzweig, J Santos, G Sherlock, A Shingleton, P Simões, JG Swallow, H Teotónio, M Travisano, PE Turner, AJ Zera, CW Zeyl
Description:
Experimental evolution is the study of evolution in populations across multiple generations and under defined conditions; these studies can occur either in the laboratory or in nature, so long as they are reproducible. The editors of this volume have provided this fairly broad definition, and as a result the volume contains diverse approaches, including studies of evolutionary responses to natural events, laboratory experiments of responses to altered environments, selective breeding experiments, and others. The volume is divided into five sections; it is worth noting that studies of plants have not been included in the volume. The first section provides an introduction to experimental evolution, its place in the field of evolutionary biology, and ways of modelling it. The second section samples different types of experimental evolution, including studies of domestication, adaptive radiation, reverse evolution, and field studies. The third section looks at different observational approaches to studies of experimental evolution, and includes chapters focusing on population dynamics, behaviour, physiology, and genome evolution. Part four is the largest of the sections, and covers a number of applications of selection experiments, including approaches to studying the evolution of animal form; studies of bacterial, viral, and eukaryotic sex; the evolution of aging; and the study of speciation, among others. Part five concludes with a critical look at the experimental approach, and especially the difficulties inherent in attempting to make such experiments both (fairly) simple and at the same time realistic. This volume provides a good overview of the breadth of the field of experimental evolution, and clearly demonstrates how different experiments – both artificial and natural – can be useful for investigating important evolutionary questions across myriad organisms. It should be of considerable interest to people in human evolutionary studies who might be considering ways to test, for example, the phenotypic response to controlled evolutionary conditions. Although the models available for laboratory experiments in particular (e.g. mice) are only distantly related to primates, nonetheless such approaches can be extremely valuable (as this volume demonstrates) and are generally underused in paleoanthropological research.
