Experimental evolution

From EvoWiki

Experimental evolution is the study of evolution in action in the context of replicated, controlled experiments. For evolution to occur, there must be reproduction, mutation and selection. To watch evolution in real time requires organisms that have rapid generation times, large population sizes, and high mutation rates. Typically evolution experiments use yeasts, bacteria and viruses, but an interesting new avenue of experimental evolution uses digital organisms. One interesting aspect of experimental evolution is that evolved genotypes can be compared to or competed against ancestors maintained in frozen stasis. Competition of genotypes permits a scientist to assess the relative fitness of the evolved genotype.

The most famous evolution experiment is maintained by Richard Lenski at Michigan State University. The Lenski lab has evolved replicate populations of Escherichia coli in chemostats since 1988. Since then the E. coli have passed through 30,000 generations [1].