Population Genetics

Abstract

The statement of Scharloo quoted above makes perfectly clear the desire of evolutionary biologists to link genetic variation and phenotypic response to the environment. This desire is not new. As early as 1884, Naegeli distinguished between environmentally induced, nonheritable change in the phenotype of an individual (modification) and a heritable change in the genetic material which was called mutation or dauermodifikation. At about the same time, Weismann (1885) pointed out the difference between the germ plasm, associated with the transmission of genetic information, and the soma which interacts with the environment. Since that time biologists have thought about and worked on the link between the genotype (idiotype) and the phenotype and its importance for the evolution of the organisms.

“After the Dark Age of Electrophoresis, evolutionary biologists are now experiencing the Renaissance of the Phenotype. During that dark age, researchers observed molecular differences in enzymes often without knowing what the enzyme did in the organism or the effects of variations detected. In the current Renaissance, interest should expand from molecular differences to the expressed traits of organisms, to their physiological effects, and to the organism’s resulting environmental fitness.” (Scharloo 1989).