Evolvability is the ability of a biological system to produce phenotypic variation that is both
heritable and adaptive. It has long been the subject of anecdotal observations and …

Cryptic genetic variation (CGV) is invisible under normal conditions, but it can fuel evolution
when circumstances change. In theory, CGV can represent a massive cache of adaptive …

The search for the alleles that matter, the quantitative trait nucleotides (QTNs) that underlie
heritable variation within populations and divergence among them, is a popular pursuit. But …

The influence of genetic variation on invasion success has captivated researchers since the
start of the field of invasion genetics 50 years ago. We review the history of work on this …

The concept of a prion as an infectious self-propagating protein isoform was initially
proposed to explain certain mammalian diseases. It is now clear that yeast also has …

Error s in protein synthesis disrupt cellular fitness, cause disease phenotypes and shape
gene and genome evolution. Experimental and theoretical results on this topic have …

The self-templating conformations of yeast prion proteins act as epigenetic elements of
inheritance. Yeast prions might provide a mechanism for generating heritable phenotypic …

Animal development is an extremely robust process resulting in stereotyped outcomes.
Canalization is a design principle wherein developmental pathways are stabilized to …

Biological systems are robust to perturbation by mutations and environmental fluctuations.
New data are shedding light on the biochemical and network-level mechanisms responsible …

An increasing number of studies demonstrate phenotypic and genetic changes in natural
populations that are subject to climate change, and there is hope that some of these …