2019/2020

Evolvability

A New and Unifying Concept in Evolutionary Biology?

Natural Sciences

Principal investigators

Thomas Fredrik Hansen

Professor
University of Oslo (UiO)
Year at CAS

Christophe Pelabon

Professor
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Year at CAS

Abstract

Evolution by natural selection requires that organisms are evolvable. This makes evolvability, the propensity to evolve, a fundamental concept in evolutionary theory. Yet, for most of the history of evolutionary biology, evolvability was taken for granted and not itself a subject of study. Since about 1990, however, there has been a flood of research on evolvability from several perspectives, but the different interpretations and approaches that have emerged from molecular, developmental and evolutionary biology pose a challenge.

In this CAS project, we will evaluate the past 25 years of research in order to understand evolvability as one of the unifying concepts of the "extended synthesis" of evolutionary theory. We will gather researchers from different disciplines that have been instrumental in the study of evolvability to synthesize what we have learned with a special focus on the historical and philosophical context that influenced the emergence of the concept. Our goal is to unify the approaches of different research fields into a synthetic multidisciplinary research program on the potential for evolution.

Fellows

W. Scott Armbruster

Professor
University of Portsmouth
Year at CAS

Silvia Basanta

PhD Candidate
Complutense University of Madrid
Year at CAS

Salomé Bourg

Dr.
University of Oslo (UiO)
Year at CAS

Jon Bråte

Researcher
University of Oslo (UiO)
Year at CAS

Ingo Brigandt

Professor
University of Alberta
Year at CAS

Mark Grabowski

Senior Lecturer
Liverpool John Moores University
Year at CAS

David Houle

Professor
Florida State University
Year at CAS

Gene Hunt

Professor
National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
Year at CAS
profile image illustration

Arnaud Le Rouzic

Researcher
French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS)
Year at CAS

Lee Hsiang Liow

Associate Professor
University of Oslo (UiO)
Year at CAS

Alan Love

Professor
University of Minnesota
Year at CAS

Michael Lynch

Professor
Arizona State University
Year at CAS

Michael Morrissey

Associate Professor
University of St. Andrews
Year at CAS

Laura Nuño de la Rosa

Dr.
Complutense University of Madrid
Year at CAS

Øystein Opedal

Dr.
University of Helsinki
Year at CAS

Mihaela Pavlicev

Professor
University of Vienna
Year at CAS

Joshua L. Payne

Assistant Professor
ETH Zürich
Year at CAS

Arthur Porto

Postdoctoral Fellow
University of Oslo (UiO)
Year at CAS

Jacqueline Sztepanacz

Assistant Professor
University of Toronto
Year at CAS

Masahito Tsuboi

Dr.
University of Oslo (UiO)
Year at CAS

Cristina Villegas

PhD Candidate
Complutense University of Madrid
Year at CAS

Kjetil Voje

Researcher
University of Oslo (UiO)
Year at CAS

Gunter Wagner

Professor
Yale University
Year at CAS

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