>There is no reason to jump to a conclusion that any mutation bestows some inherent "improvement".

Indeed. There is little evidence for mutations that are both beneficial and generate any new information.

I understand that this is why many biologists are starting to embrace more of a Facilitated Variation view as more scholarship and genetic insights become available, suggesting the variation is already in the genome and is able to be rearranged to promote fitness:

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0701035104

But as I understand it, local adaptation is not strictly a genetic question but also concerns the interplay between genotype and environment, which likely incorporates epigenetic factors as well, ultimately producing a phenotype best suited to its biome.


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