organic evolution
| Noun | 1. |  organic evolution - (biology) the sequence of events involved in the evolutionary development of a species or taxonomic group of organisms |
| 单词 | organic evolution | |||
| 释义 | organic evolution
organic evolutionOrganic evolutionThe modification of living organisms during their descent, generation by generation, from common ancestors. Organic, or biological, evolution is to be distinguished from other phenomena to which the term evolution is often applied, such as chemical evolution, cultural evolution, or the origin of life from nonliving matter. Organic evolution includes two major processes: anagenesis, the alteration of the genetic properties of a single lineage over time; and cladogenesis, or branching, whereby a single lineage splits into two or more distinct lineages that continue to change anagenetically. Anagenesis consists of change in the genetic basis of the features of the organisms that constitute a single species. Populations in different geographic localities are considered members of the same species if they can exchange members at some rate and hence interbreed with each other, but unless the level of interchange (gene flow) is very high, some degree of genetic difference among different populations is likely to develop. The changes that transpire in a single population may be spread to other populations of the species by gene flow. See Species concept Almost every population harbors several different alleles at each of a great many of the gene loci; hence many characteristics of a species are genetically variable. All genetic variations ultimately arise by mutation of the genetic material. Broadly defined, mutations include changes in the number or structure of the chromosomes and changes in individual genes, including substitutions of individual nucleotide pairs, insertion and deletion of nucleotides, and duplication of genes. Many such mutations alter the properties of the gene products (ribonucleic acid and proteins) or the timing or tissue localization of gene action, and consequently affect various aspects of the phenotype (that is, the morphological and physiological characteristics of an organism). Whether and how a mutation is phenotypically expressed often depends on developmental (epigenetic) events. See Gene, Genetic code, Mutation, Ribonucleic acid (RNA) Natural selection is a consistent difference in the average rate at which genetically different entities leave descendants to subsequent generations; such a difference arises from differences in fitness (that is, in the rate of survival, reproduction, or both). In fact, a good approximate measure of the strength of natural selection is the difference between two such entities in their rate of increase. The entities referred to are usually different alleles at a locus, or phenotypically different classes of individuals in the population that differ in genotype. Thus selection may occur at the level of the gene, as in the phenomenon of meiotic drive, whereby one allele predominates among the gametes produced by a heterozygote. Selection at the level of the individual organism, the more usual case, entails a difference in the survival and reproductive success of phenotypes that may differ at one locus or at more than one locus. As a consequence of the difference in fitness, the proportion of one or the other allele increases in subsequent generations. The relative fitness of different genotypes usually depends on environmental conditions. Different alleles of a gene that provides an important function do not necessarily differ in their effect on survival and reproduction; such alleles are said to be neutral. The proportion of two neutral alleles in a population fluctuates randomly from generation to generation by chance, because not all individuals in the population have the same number of surviving offspring. Random fluctuations of this kind are termed random genetic drift. If different alleles do indeed differ in their effects on fitness, both genetic drift and natural selection operate simultaneously. The deterministic force of natural selection drives allele frequencies toward an equilibrium, while the stochastic (random) force of genetic drift brings them away from that equilibrium. The outcome for any given population depends on the relative strength of natural selection (the magnitude of differences in fitness) and of genetic drift (which depends on population size). The great diversity of organisms has come about because individual lineages (species) branch into separate species, which continue to diverge. This splitting process, speciation, occurs when genetic differences develop between two populations that prevent them from interbreeding and forming a common gene pool. The genetically based characteristics that cause such reproductive isolation are usually termed isolating mechanisms. Reproductive isolation seems to develop usually as a fortuitous by-product of genetic divergence that occurs for other reasons (either by natural selection or by genetic drift). See Speciation A frequent consequence of natural selection is that a species comes to be dominated by individuals whose features equip them better for the environment or way of life of the species. Such features are termed adaptations. Although many features of organisms are adaptive, not all are, and it is a serious error to suppose that species are capable of attaining ideal states of adaptation. Some characteristics are likely to have developed by genetic drift rather than natural selection, and so are not adaptations; others are side effects of adaptive features, which exist because of pleiotropy or developmental correlations. Higher taxa are those above the species level, such as genera and families. A taxon such as a genus is typically a group of species, derived from a common ancestor, that share one or more features so distinctive that they merit recognition as a separate taxon. The degree of difference necessary for such recognition, however, is entirely arbitrary: there are often no sharp limits between related genera, families, or other higher taxa, and very often the diagnostic character exists in graded steps among a group of species that may be arbitrarily divided into different higher taxa. Moreover, a character that in some groups is used to distinguish higher taxa sometimes varies among closely related species or even within species. In addition, the fossil record of many groups shows that a trait that takes on very different forms in two living taxa has developed by intermediate steps along divergent lines from their common ancestor; thus the inner ear bones of mammals may be traced to jaw elements in reptiles that in turn are homologous to gill arch elements in Paleozoic fishes. The characteristics of a species evolve individually or in concert with certain other traits that are developmentally or functionally correlated. Because of this mosaic pattern of evolution, it is meaningful to speak of the rate of evolution of characters, but not of species or lineages as total entities. Thus in some lineages, such as the so-called living fossils, many aspects of morphology have evolved slowly since the groups first came into existence, but evolution of their deoxyribonucleic acid and amino acid sequences has proceeded at much the same rate as in other lineages. Every species, including the living fossils, is a mixture of traits that have changed little since the species' remote ancestors, and traits that have undergone some evolutionary change in the recent past. The history of life is not one of progress in any one direction, but of adaptive radiation on a grand scale: the descendants of any one lineage diverge as they adapt to different resources, habitats, or ways of life, acquiring their own specialized features as they do so. There is no evidence that evolution has any goal, nor does the mechanistic theory of evolutionary processes admit of any way in which genetic change can have a goal or be directed toward the future. However, for life taken as a whole, the only clearly discernible trend is toward ever-increasing diversity. organic evolution[ȯr′gan·ik ‚ev·ə′lü·shən]organic evolutionbi·o·log·ic ev·o·lu·tionbi·o·log·ic ev·o·lu·tion(bī'ŏ-loj'ik ev'ŏ-lū'shŭn)Synonym(s): organic evolution. Patient discussion about organic evolutionQ. How the bacterias are produced? organic evolution
Synonyms for organic evolution
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