Genetic details, optimization and phage life histories

Optimality models assume that phenotypes evolve by natural selection largely independently of underlying genetic mechanisms. This neglect of genetic mechanisms is considered an advantage by some evolutionary biologists but a fatal flaw by others. The controversy has gone unresolved, in part, from a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inTrends in ecology & evolution (Amsterdam) Vol. 19; no. 2; pp. 76 - 82
Main Authors Bull, J.J., Pfennig, David W., Wang, Ing-Nang
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.02.2004
Elsevier
Subjects
Biological and medical sciences
Biological evolution
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Genetics of eukaryotes. Biological and molecular evolution
Virus
Life history
Phenotype
Biological evolution
Lysis
Models
Timing
Phage
Natural selection
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Summary:Optimality models assume that phenotypes evolve by natural selection largely independently of underlying genetic mechanisms. This neglect of genetic mechanisms is considered an advantage by some evolutionary biologists but a fatal flaw by others. The controversy has gone unresolved, in part, from a lack of complex phenotypes that meet optimality criteria and for which the underlying genetic mechanisms are known. Here, we look at both perspectives for lysis time in bacteriophages. We find that the basic assumptions of the optimality model are compatible with the genetic details, but the optimality model is limited in its ability to accommodate lysis time plasticity because the mechanistic underpinnings of plasticity are poorly known.
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ISSN:0169-5347
1872-8383
DOI:10.1016/j.tree.2003.10.008