Of Bacteria and Men: The Logic of Chance by Eugene Koonin (continuation)
QT:{{”
The author goes further in discussing the evolutionary processes. He considers the view of the modern synthesis, which focuses on variation and selection, too simplistic. Hence he proposes to adopt a multifactorial view, and to recognize three modalities of evolution, so-called Darwinian (random mutation and selection), Lamarckian (directed mutation) and Wrightian (random mutation and random fixation), the latter from Sewall Wright, one of the founders of population genetics. As an example of Lamarckian modality, Koonin mentions the CRISPR system in bacteria, where ‘acquired’ modifications are transmitted in the genome (Koonin & Wolf, 2009).
Now here, if I’m not mistaken, we enter territories devoid of consensus among evolutionary biologists. (I’m not an evolutionary biologist, and I admit that the subtleties of the debate often escape me.) For instance Patrick Forterre, from the Institut Pasteur, is very critical of what he calls “the false come back of Lamarck” (Forterre, 2012). He considers the CRISPR example as misleading, and that in essence this is a Darwinian phenomenon.
“}}
http://ofbacteriaandmen.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-logic-of-chance-by-eugene-koonin_22.html