The selection for selection: Synthesizing evolvability with species-selection theory to explain adaptive genetic variation

Resumen del trabajo presentado a la VII Biennial Congress of Sociedad Española de Biología Evolutiva (SEBE), celebrada en Sevilla (España) del 5 al 7 de febrero de 2020.Selection at a level higher than the individual is still considered a suspect notion by many. However, empirical evidence gathered on the mechanisms of genetic variation now strongly suggests that these mechanisms have undergone selection at the species level. Pressure is put on a species to evolve and adapt when their respective environment changes, which is predominantly relaxed through the production of novel genetic variants. Nevertheless, modern theory is ill-equip to explain this phenomenon due to the narrowed and pervasive view of natural selection as a process that operates within-populations on individual organisms. In this talk, I make the argument that the synthesis of evolvability theory with species selection theory could explain this phenomenon. In addition, the literature on this subject also provides a firm evidential basis that these theories could formulate their models around, since both models are currently lacking in empirical support. I begin my argument with a brief summarization of the literature on the evolution of the mechanisms of adaptive genetic variation—i.e., genetic recombination, hypermutation, genetic transposition, horizontal gene transfer, and whole-genome duplication. Secondly, I review the literature on the causation of natural selection, using it as a benchmark to subsequently make the argument that the mechanisms of adaptive genetic variation satisfy all the necessary conditions of adaptations by natural selection, but at the species-level. Lastly, I conclude by arguing that evolvability theory, fused with species selection theory, would allow us to explain and better understand the underlying processes of variation and species extinction.Peer reviewe