Talk:Molecular evolution

'04 comment
The article on molecular evolution should mention concrete basic mechanisms, such as mutation and gene duplication early on. Etxrge 07:26, 26 Oct 2004 (UTC)


 * Agreed, feel free to expand in summary style. --Lexor|Talk 08:08, Dec 13, 2004 (UTC)

A semantic nit: can "drift" of nonfunctional DNA sequences be called "evolution", if it does not lead to better fitness in the evolutionary sense? -130.233.136.69 Mon Dec 13 08:30:52 EET 2004


 * Yes, because evolution is usually defined a "change in allele frequencies" which can be caused by many factors (drift, mutation, gene flow, selection) only one of these (selection) will necessarily result in an increase in fitness. See the relevant section in the evolution article. --Lexor|Talk 08:08, Dec 13, 2004 (UTC)

New intro paragraph
The previous intro paragraph was perhaps a better description of molecular population genetics, a sister field. The new paragraph adds a discussion of protein evolution, and provides a historical account of the development of the field to the current day.NatMor 05:45, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Embryology
would sympathtic editors consider a positive vote here? Slrubenstein  |  Talk 15:18, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Infinite alleles model
I suggest that we make an article for the "Infinite alleles model". It's an important model, but it's a model of population genetic. - PhDP (talk) 18:44, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Key researchers in molecular evolution, is this relevant ?
Is this section relevant ? First of all, there's nothing like that in the other important articles about evolution, and also, it seems subjectives. The important researchers will be quoted in the text anyway... I think we should remove it - PhDP (talk) 20:21, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

I agree with the above-- a list of names without concepts is odd for this type of article and the choice of researchers seems incomplete therefore appears arbitrary. I'd nominate the section for deletion OR expand the article so that the related research and names are mentioned naturally. Rlrogers (talk) 01:30, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Evolution as a whole handles this division via 2 pages, splitting between evolution for the science and evolutionary biology for the discipline. But the people named in evolutionary biology are chosen (with supporting citations) on the basis of their track record in discipline-building rather than their foundational accomplishments. These names are more the latter. It would be good to work these names into the "history of the science" subsection earlier on this same page, or into the main history of molecular evolution page it links to. If they are already there, I think they can be deleted. Joannamasel (talk) 08:59, 24 June 2013 (UTC)

Is evolution a continuous process

 * If evolution is a continuous process, why do we see the same 20 proteogenic amino acids in all organisms? Why do we see the same A, T, G and C in DNA of all organisms? Why do we see the same A, T, G and U in RNA of all organisms? Why there is no evolution in proteogenic amino acids and why there is no evolution in the nucleotide residues which can be the parts of DNA/RNA? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.212.249.50 (talk) 11:39, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Causes of change in allele frequency
This has nothing to do in this article, molecular evolution is not about "allele frequency", again, this is population genetics, molecular evolution is more concerned about nucleotide substitution. In most intro. book about molecular evolution, there's a little paragraph about this, but the core of the book is about nucleotire substitution, this is how the article should be written. - PhDP (talk) 20:59, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Connection with punctuated equilibrium
Neutral mutations do not affect the organism's chances of survival in its natural environment and can accumulate over time, which might result in what is known as punctuated equilibrium; the modern interpretation of classic evolutionary theory.

I don't know much about evolutionary biology, but this seems like complete BS to me. --Tgr (talk) 17:55, 19 March 2008 (UTC)
 * what might result in punctuated equilibrium? The accumulation of neutral mutations over time? Punctuated equilibrium is the rapid evolutionary change due to some sudden selection pressure. What has that got to do with some slow accumulation over time?
 * punctuated equilibrium is "the modern interpretation of classic evolutionary theory"? Maybe one modern interpretation.
 * And hardly an interpretation, because some incarnations of punctuated equilibrium explicity deny some principles of "classic evolutionary theory" like gradual change (what's "classic evolutionary theory" anyway?). This should be removed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 200.127.135.69 (talk) 02:47, 27 September 2008 (UTC)
 * I've removed the claim. If someone wants to replace it, they can include a citation. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.21.144.220 (talk) 09:09, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Section Genome evolution: Questions, Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic genomes
I am going to delete the subsections on Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic genomes soon as they do not relate to genome evolution per se. This information is also available in genome, and in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Same for the questions. These questions have been answered in various sections or pages already (e.g. the first question, " How did the genome evolve into its current size?" has been answered in the section on Genome size. Peteruetz (talk) 12:53, 16 July 2012 (UTC)]

Major changes July2013
I have made major changes to the article to clean up language that was imprecise and to add sections that reflect the current state of the field. The article still needs a bit of work, but I would like to ask for help on making sure it is accessible to the public as well as thoughts on sections to add or expand. I removed the section on History of Molecular Evolution, since there is a separate page for that topic.

Rlrogers (talk) 01:59, 14 July 2013 (UTC)

Assessment comment
Substituted at 00:19, 30 April 2016 (UTC)

Redirection and separate article Genome evolution
There is a separate article Genome evolution. Searching Wikipedia for Genome Evolution (notice the upper case E) redirects to this Molecular evolution page. This appears rather inconsistent, but there may be a history which justifies this?Marcrr (talk) 08:50, 27 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Whatever the history, clearly bonkers. I'll fix it now. Chiswick Chap (talk) 08:57, 27 January 2017 (UTC)

Overhaul to better differentiate from population genetics
This article is a bit of a mess, and I think its organization is standing in the way of improving it. The forces view is really about changing allele frequencies, whereas most molecular evolution is about fixed differences between populations. The forces view is extensively covered elsewhere on wikipedia, including both population genetics and evolution. As a bold change, I propose removing it from this page, and reorganizing the remainder. It's a big project, and my availability is patchy, but I plan to work on it over the coming months. I'll make a start now. Joannamasel (talk) 21:35, 27 April 2024 (UTC)


 * I got further than I thought, restructuring is now complete.Joannamasel (talk) 18:42, 28 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Good job! This is a big improvement. Genome42 (talk) 20:44, 29 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Thank you!Joannamasel (talk) 17:39, 30 April 2024 (UTC)