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When evolvability meets constraint: reflections on empirical fitness landscapes after Weinreich et al. (2006)

delete2026-06-23
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C Brandon Ogbunugafor *
DOI:10.1093/genetics/iyag140delete
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Abstract

Abstract

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In 2006, a manuscript appeared with a provocative title: “Darwinian evolution can follow only very few mutational paths to fitter proteins.” Twenty years on, I argue that it was a landmark study, one that promoted a tractable model system—the empirical fitness landscape—for theoretical questions in population and evolutionary genetics, including the dialectic between evolvability and constraint. Drawing on a reanalysis of the original data and a synthesis of the subsequent literature, I survey areas of evolutionary genetics that have developed in its wake. Its deepest legacy, I argue, lies less in its headline finding than in how it bridged canonical population-genetic theory with experimental practice, helping inspire a research program that interrogates the mechanistic bases of adaptive evolution and remains in active conversation with applications spanning biomedicine, biological engineering, and artificial life.

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Genetics cover
Genetics
IF:
5.1
Papers:
8.1K
Citations:
3.6W

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yale university
Scholars:
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Papers: 3.0K
Citations: 2
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