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Road Map to Study Convergent Evolution: A Proposition for Evolutionary Systems Biology Approaches

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Evolutionary Biology

Abstract

Every evolutionary biologist will surely acknowledge that convergent evolution, the independent evolution of similar features in different evolutionary lineages, is an important phenomenon of the organic evolution. However, the concept is complex and can have several related but conceptually distinct meanings in the literature, including parallel evolution (independent mutations in orthologous genes) and homoplasy (any convergent traits, including reversion). Some authors, for example, use the term “parallel evolution” differently from “convergent evolution”, and they reserve the latter term for more “unlikely” (or “more independent”) examples of phenotypic similarity across lineages, those not predisposed by genomic similarity. Semantic arguments in science are often fruitful, but can also prevent efficient scientific exchanges in the field. Hence, the goal of this article was (1) to define convergent evolution in a better way by applying a multilevel biological-level approach and (2) to propose a road map to help researchers navigate their routes in studying this phenomenon.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge our colleagues from the EBM team, as well as Benoit Heulin, Olivier Sandra and Laurent Journot for helpful discussions and Christophe Klopp and Mike Speed for critical reading of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CNRS Centrale Marseille, I2M UMR 7373 équipe EBM (Evolution Biologique Modélisation), Aix Marseille Université, 13453, Marseille cedex, France

    Pierre Pontarotti

  2. UMR BDR INRA ENVA, Université Paris Saclay, 78350, Jouy en Josas, France

    Isabelle Hue

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  1. Pierre Pontarotti
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Correspondence to Pierre Pontarotti .

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  1. CNRS, Laboratoire Evolution Biologique et Modélisation, Université d’Aix-Marseille, Marseille, France

    Pierre Pontarotti

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Pontarotti, P., Hue, I. (2016). Road Map to Study Convergent Evolution: A Proposition for Evolutionary Systems Biology Approaches. In: Pontarotti, P. (eds) Evolutionary Biology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41324-2_1

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