Random Factors: An Interview with 2017 Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal Recipient Richard C. Lewontin.

The Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal is awarded to an individual member of the Genetics Society of America for lifetime achievement in the field of genetics. It recognizes the full body of work of an exceptional geneticist. The 2017 recipient is Richard C. Lewontin, whose contributions and influence have profoundly shaped the field of evolutionary genetics. As a testament to this legacy, his nomination for the Morgan Medal was cosigned by 160 faculty members from around the world. A student of Theodosius Dobzhansky, Lewontin's early work established the two-locus theory, which laid the foundation for our understanding of linkage disequilibrium. In the 1960s, he collaborated with biochemist Jack Hubby on a method to quantify natural genetic variation using protein gel electrophoresis. This approach helped launch the field of molecular evolution and spurred a great influx of data into a formerly theory-dominated domain. The subsequent contributions of Lewontin and his group helped set the stage for much of modern population genetics and genomics research. As well as this direct impact, Lewontin influenced the field through his guidance and inspiration, as well as through his capacity to spur vigorous but productive debates. His prominent role as a writer and social commentator included highlighting problems with the inference of heritability, concepts of race, and the overemphasis of genetic influences on phenotypes.

The mystery of language evolution.

Understanding the evolution of language requires evidence regarding origins and processes that led to change. In the last 40 years, there has been an explosion of research on this problem as well as a sense that considerable progress has been made. We argue instead that the richness of ideas is accompanied by a poverty of evidence, with essentially no explanation of how and why our linguistic computations and representations evolved. We show that, to date, (1) studies of nonhuman animals provide virtually no relevant parallels to human linguistic communication, and none to the underlying biological capacity; (2) the fossil and archaeological evidence does not inform our understanding of the computations and representations of our earliest ancestors, leaving details of origins and selective pressure unresolved; (3) our understanding of the genetics of language is so impoverished that there is little hope of connecting genes to linguistic processes any time soon; (4) all modeling attempts have made unfounded assumptions, and have provided no empirical tests, thus leaving any insights into language's origins unverifiable. Based on the current state of evidence, we submit that the most fundamental questions about the origins and evolution of our linguistic capacity remain as mysterious as ever, with considerable uncertainty about the discovery of either relevant or conclusive evidence that can adjudicate among the many open hypotheses. We conclude by presenting some suggestions about possible paths forward.

A structured coalescent process for seasonally fluctuating populations.

Many short-lived organisms pass through several generations during favorable growing seasons, separated by inhospitable periods during which only small hibernating or estivating refugia remain. This induces pronounced seasonal fluctuations in population size and metapopulation structure. The first generations in the growing season will be characterized by small, relatively isolated demes whereas the later generations will experience larger deme sizes with more extensive gene flow. Fluctuations of this sort can induce changes in the amount of genetic variation in early season samples compared to late season samples, a classical example being the observations of seasonal variation in allelism in New England Drosophila populations by P.T. Ives. In this article, we study the properties of a structured coalescent process under seasonal fluctuations using numerical analysis of exact state equations, analytical approximations that rely on a separation of timescales between intrademic versus interdemic processes, and individual-based simulations. We show that although an increase in genetic variation during each favorable growing season is observed, it is not as pronounced as in the empirical observations. This suggests that some of the temporal patterns of variation seen by Ives may be due to selection against deleterious lethals rather than neutral processes.

Teaching evolutionary biology

Evolutionary Biology integrates several disciplines of Biology in a complex and interactive manner, where a deep understanding of the subject demands knowledge in diverse areas. Since this knowledge is often inaccessible to the majority of specialized professionals, including the teachers, we present some reflections in order to stimulate discussions aimed at the improvement of the conditions of education in this area. We examine the profile of evolutionary teaching in Brazil, based on questionnaires distributed to teachers in Secondary Education in the Federal District, on data provided by the "National Institute for Educational Studies and Research", and on information collected from teachers working in various regions of this country. Issues related to biological misconceptions, curriculum and didactic material are discussed, and some proposals are presented with the objective of aiding discussions aimed at the improvement of the teaching of evolutionary biology.

Perspective: Evolution and detection of genetic robustness.

Robustness is the invariance of phenotypes in the face of perturbation. The robustness of phenotypes appears at various levels of biological organization, including gene expression, protein folding, metabolic flux, physiological homeostasis, development, and even organismal fitness. The mechanisms underlying robustness are diverse, ranging from thermodynamic stability at the RNA and protein level to behavior at the organismal level. Phenotypes can be robust either against heritable perturbations (e.g., mutations) or nonheritable perturbations (e.g., the weather). Here we primarily focus on the first kind of robustness--genetic robustness--and survey three growing avenues of research: (1) measuring genetic robustness in nature and in the laboratory; (2) understanding the evolution of genetic robustness: and (3) exploring the implications of genetic robustness for future evolution.