Convergence and parallelism reconsidered: what have we learned about the genetics of adaptation?

Biologists often distinguish ‘convergent’ from ‘parallel’ evolution. This distinction usually assumes that when a given phenotype evolves, the underlying genetic mechanisms are different in distantly related species (convergent) but similar in closely related species (parallel). However, several exa...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Trends in ecology & evolution (Amsterdam) 2008, Vol.23 (1), p.26-32
Main Authors: Arendt, Jeff, Reznick, David
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation, Biological - genetics
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Animals
Biological and medical sciences
Biological Evolution
Fishes - genetics
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
General aspects
Genetics of eukaryotes. Biological and molecular evolution
Genetics, Population
Peromyscus - genetics
Phenotype
Pigmentation - genetics
Polymorphism, Genetic
Quantitative Trait Loci
Receptor, Melanocortin, Type 1 - genetics
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Biologists often distinguish ‘convergent’ from ‘parallel’ evolution. This distinction usually assumes that when a given phenotype evolves, the underlying genetic mechanisms are different in distantly related species (convergent) but similar in closely related species (parallel). However, several examples show that the same phenotype might evolve among populations within a species by changes in different genes. Conversely, similar phenotypes might evolve in distantly related species by changes in the same gene. We thus argue that the distinction between ‘convergent’ and ‘parallel’ evolution is a false dichotomy, at best representing ends of a continuum. We can simplify our vocabulary; all instances of the independent evolution of a given phenotype can be described with a single term – convergent.
ISSN:0169-5347
1872-8383
DOI:10.1016/j.tree.2007.09.011