A Primer for Experimental Evolution

The purpose of this Primer is to explain the principles of Experimental Evolution. It illustrates how evolution experiments should be properly designed to examine fundamental principles of evolution and answer big questions in biology. The need for this primer has increased with the recent advances in genomics, because the functional significance of genetic variation is not easily understood without an evolutionary lens. We believe that experimental evolution can take a leading role in meeting this challenge. We explain how experimental evolution allows strong inferences while testing the evolutionary mechanisms and dynamics that shape organismal functions. Using exemplary studies, we demonstrate how evolution experiments allow researchers to probe deeply into the genomic basis of adaptation by natural selection, by which, in the words of Charles Darwin, "endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."

Michael R Rose is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Biology at the University of California, Irvine. He has been studying the biology of aging since 1976 and has received several scientific prizes, including the inaugural Bacon Prize in 2019. With more than three hundred academic articles and ten academic books, his research on aging is summarized in Conceptual Breakthroughs in the Evolutionary Biology of Aging, co-authored with Kenneth Arnold.

Richard E Lenski is the John Hannah Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University, best known for the Long-Term Evolution Experiment he began in 1988 which continues to this day. The experiment provides a unique record of evolution, offering insights into adaptation dynamics, genome evolution, repeatability of evolution, and the origin of new functions. Dr Lenski is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and American Philosophical Society. He is a past President of the Society for the Study of Evolution, co-founder of the NSF-funded BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action, and recipient of the Friend of Darwin award from the National Center for Science Education for his public-facing work on evolution. He has mentored around 30 graduate students and postdoctoral scientists now hold faculty positions in universities around the US and the world.

Margarida Matos is Full Professor at the Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon, where she coordinates a PhD program and teaches several courses in Evolutionary Biology, including Experimental Evolution. She is a researcher at the Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, leading the Local Adaptation in Drosophila Research Group. Her research focuses on evolutionary patterns and processes during adaptation to novel environments in Drosophila populations, including thermal adaptation and the influence of genetic backgrounds on evolutionary trajectories. She has authored over 50 articles in leading journals and co-edited Methuselah Flies: A Case Study in the Evolution of Aging. She is active in manuscript reviewing and serves as editor for Frontiers in Genetics.

Joseph Graves, Jr. is MacKenzie Scott Endowed Professor of Biology at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, specializing on the evolutionary genomics of adaptation. In 1994, he was elected a Fellow of the Council of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). His recent honors include the Genius Award (Liberty Science Center), Outstanding Alumnus Award (Public Service, Oberlin College), Patrusky Lecture for Science Writers Conference, and the W W Howells Award for best book in biological anthropology, presented by the American Association of Anthropologists (AAA). He is Associate Director of Precision Microbiome Engineering (PreMiEr) NSF Gen-4 ERC and the Director of the NC Amgen Biotech Experience. Dr Graves is author of Why Black People Die Sooner, A Voice in the Wilderness (with Alan Goodman), Racism, Not Race, Principles and Applications of Antimicrobial Nanomaterials, The Emperor's New Clothes, and The Race Myth. He has also served on the Racial Reconciliation and Justice Commission, COVID Vaccination Task Force, and the Council of Advice on Public Policy (CAPP) of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, and as a science advisor to several theological seminaries through the AAAS Dialogues of Science, Ethics, and Religion (DoSER) program.