Does Stress Speed Up Evolution?
In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams’ comedic sci-fi series from the 1970s, the Haggunenons of Vicissitus Three are one of the most insecure and angry life forms in the galaxy. What’s their problem? They have “impatient chromosomes” that instantly adapt to their surroundings. If they are sitting at a table, for instance, and are unable to reach a coffee spoon, “they are liable without a moment’s consideration to mutate into something with far longer arms … but which is probably quite incapable of drinking the coffee.”
Susan M. Rosenberg, a molecular biologist at Baylor College of Medicine, quotes Adams’ “(deliciously) askew” story in a research paper on mutations in evolution as an example of how, according to standard neo-Darwinian theory, evolution does not work. Organisms, all good students know, do not generate rapid genetic mutations in response to their environment. There are exceptions, such as mutations spurred by certain chemicals or radiation. In general, though, mutations, the raw material for natural selection, accumulate slowly in dividing cells, as the result of accidental errors in the way cells copy or repair their genetic material. The environment plays a role only later, selecting the most viable mutants.
But after more than two decades of experiments with the bacteria E. coli and most recently human cancer cells, Rosenberg is challenging that central tenet of evolutionary theory. According to Rosenberg and colleagues like Robert H. Austin, a physicist at Princeton University, organisms have evolved mechanisms that enable them to drive their own evolution in times of stress. Environmental pressure can boost mutation rates rapidly, even in cells that are not dividing, enabling them to adapt more quickly to new conditions. “Stop insisting that all mutations are random and evolution is slow is the entire story,” Austin says.
Contrary to traditional evolutionary theory, say Rosenberg and Austin—and they have their critics—cells might not need to divide much, or at all, to adapt. “All
