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In 1942, Julian Huxley referred to the cross-disciplinary, uni fi ed evolutionary theory as the modern evolutionary synthesis. In the early part of the twentieth century, Fisher, Haldane, and Wright—and later Mayr, Dobzhansky, and others—produced a revised model of Darwinian evolution that rationalizes Mendelian genetics in the context of natural selection. The presence of pre-existing heritable variation is key for selection to be effective and is a contingency of adaptability. At the same time, mutation is proposed to accumulate at a constant rate, regardless of selective pressures and environmental cues.

The discoveries of epigenetic inheritance and stress-induced mutation have challenged the claim of independence between mutation and selection processes. The ability of an organism to undergo genetic or epigenetic change in response to environmental stresses suggests an ability to alter the rate of mutation …