A Primer For Experimental Evolution

The purpose of this Primer is to explain the principles of Experimental Evolution. It illustrates how evolution experiments should be properly designed to examine fundamental principles of evolution and answer big questions in biology. The need for this primer has increased with the recent advances in genomics, because the functional significance of genetic variation is not easily understood without an evolutionary lens. We believe that experimental evolution can take a leading role in meeting this challenge. We explain how experimental evolution allows strong inferences while testing the evolutionary mechanisms and dynamics that shape organismal functions. Using exemplary studies, we demonstrate how evolution experiments allow researchers to probe deeply into the genomic basis of adaptation by natural selection, by which, in the words of Charles Darwin, 'endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.'