Hi all
I am reading a book called Evolution Since Darwin, The First 150 Years
Chapter 5 is by John Wakely entitled “Natural Selection and Coalescent Theory”
Now I am well and truly out of my depth on this due to the maths so really just went to the conclusion.
Wakely on page 143 states
Given the lack of force of theoretical arguments for the neutral theory (Ewens 1979), the empirical evidence against it, and the fact that the selective models can both provide a better fit to the observations and mimic neutrality itself (Gillespie 1991), the longevity of the neutral theory may be surprising. However, as Crow (2008) points out, the very simplicity of the neutral theory accounts for a lot of its appeal
As a side comment, the ability of the iphone to copy and paste text from a photo of a paper book is a joy for quotes like that!
He continues
However, Gillespie (1994) has shown that there is low power to detect crucial deviations from neutrality and to distinguish among some selective alternatives to the neutral theory, at least using simple statistical tests.
The previous chapter written by Jianzhi Zhang (page 108) states that “Because of its central importance in evolutionary biology, the neutralist-selectionist debate is unlikely to be outgrown soon. Fortunately, the debate is becoming more quantitative than qualitative (i.e., about the percentage of Fixations that are adaptive and the fitness effects of the fixed changes), and believe that new findings will continue to emerge from genomic studies.”
Has anyone competent in the science read this book / Wakely’s chapter and have any thoughts on the arguments he puts forward in the main body of the chapter itself? As Zhang points out, and as I have gathered from other reading, there is a debate going on; I can only assume that there are those who advocate more strenuously for one extreme on both sides and this may be such an instance. The second quote I provided above is however intriguing to me as it would seem to raise a valid need to be cautious about assumptions. That works both ways though I would assume?