Testing evolutionary theory: from genome to phenotype and back again

我们从继续发展和测试进化论中得到了什么？我们从现代综合论中继承的进化图景是丰富多样的。我们对性状的遗传有了很好的理解，对遗传漂变在形成分子变异中的作用有了很好的认识，并且越来越能够测量和观察野生环境中的自然选择。我们最近在理论和实验方面的进展，使我们对达尔文进化论的基本观点更加复杂，突出了遗传约束对进化的作用、间接遗传效应以及两性个体之间的利益冲突。但是，尽管这些发展取得了巨大的成功，但通常很难判断每一个发展在解释我们周围的生物变异方面有多重要。然而，如果我们希望找到生物体如何适应和进化的更普遍的模式，这就是我们需要做的。主要的绊脚石是缺乏我们对自然选择如何起作用了解很多的特征;只有有了这些信息，我们才能开始去问，在遗传约束、性冲突等方面，与预期模式的差异在多大程度上是可以解释的。我将使用两个我们确实知道自然选择应该如何起作用的特征，性别分配和雌性再交配率，作为模型系统来测试当前进化理论的重要性。利用雌性寄生蜂的性别比例决定，我将探讨遗传结构和自然选择的对立力量如何影响适应。利用一种滥交种子虫的交配行为，我将探讨雄性和雌性之间关于是否交配的利益冲突如何影响生物体生物学的其他方面，例如它们的寿命，它们有多少后代，以及它们长多大。通过实地和实验室的遗传分析和行为实验，我将解开不同进化过程的工作原理，并定量评估它们的重要性。这些结果将为我们提供有价值的见解，了解特定的遗传和环境因素在限制动物适应环境的程度方面有多重要。

What do we get from continuing to develop and test evolutionary theory? The picture of evolution we have inherited from the Modern Synthesis is a rich and varied one. We have a good understanding of the genetic inheritance of traits, an appreciation of the role of genetic drift in shaping molecular variation, and have increasingly been able to measure and observe natural selection in the wild. Our recent advances in theory and experiment have added considerable sophistication to our basic view of Darwinian evolution, highlighting the role of genetic constraints on evolution, indirect genetic effects and also conflicts of interest between individuals of the two sexes. But for all the tremendous successes of these developments, it has often been very hard to judge how important each one is in explaining variation in the organisms we see around us. Yet this is what we need to do if we wish to find more general patterns in how organisms adapt and evolve. The main stumbling block has been a lack of traits about which we know a lot about how natural selection should work; only with this information can we begin to ask to what extent is variation from the expected pattern explicable in terms of genetic constraints, sexual conflict and so on. I will use two traits where we do know how natural selection should be acting, sex allocation and female re-mating rate, as model systems to test the importance of aspects of current evolutionary theory. Using the sex ratio decisions of female parasitic wasps, I will explore how genetic architecture and opposing forces of natural selection influence adaptation. Using the mating behaviour of a promiscuous seed bug, I will explore how conflicts of interest between males and females over whether to mate influence other aspects of an organism's biology, such as how long they live, how many offspring they have, and how big they grow. With a mixture of genetic analysis and behavioural experiments in the field and in the laboratory, I will untangle how different evolutionary processes work, and estimate their importance quantitatively. The results will give us valuable insights into how important particular genetic and environmental factors are in limiting the extent to which animals adapt themselves to their surroundings.