vnewjay

I think, it is very important for the relations between environment and human.

Living in the environment make a strong impact on the biological evolution.

Certainly, "Detecting genetic responses to environmental change" !

vnewjay

Changes in environmental conditions can rapidly shift allele frequencies in populations of species with relatively short generation times. Frequency shifts might be detectable in neutral genetic markers when stressful conditions cause a population decline. However, frequency shifts that are diagnostic of specific conditions depend on isolating sets of genes that are involved in adaptive responses. Shifts at candidate loci underlying adaptive responses and DNA regions that control their expression have now been linked to evolutionary responses to pollution, global warming and other changes. Conversely, adaptive constraints, particularly in physiological traits, are recognized through DNA decay in candidate genes. These approaches help researchers and conservation managers understand the power and constraints of evolution.

http://www.nature.com/nrg/journal/v9/n6/full/nrg2339.html

vnewjay

Tuning gene expression to changing environments: from rapid responses to evolutionary adaptation

Organisms are constantly exposed to a wide range of environmental changes, including both short-term changes during their lifetime and longer-term changes across generations. Stress-related gene expression programmes, characterized by distinct transcriptional mechanisms and high levels of noise in their expression patterns, need to be balanced with growth-related gene expression programmes. A range of recent studies give fascinating insight into cellular strategies for keeping gene expression in tune with physiological needs dictated by the environment, promoting adaptation to both short- and long-term environmental changes. Not only do organisms show great resilience to external challenges, but emerging data suggest that they also exploit these challenges to fuel phenotypic variation and evolutionary innovation.

http://www.nature.com/nrg/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nrg2398.html